OLD FORT SPELLING 



''rtflmJa«3 .?.tM (li hs-jirbo-iqaT .(iBrnlafltl ilJoB niGlfisO •<(! ^/liiiiincj « moi*! 



OLD FORT SNELLING 

From a painting by Captain Setli Eastman, reproduced in Mrs. Eastman's 
DnTicotnli : nr, Life and Lffienrhi of the f!in>i^ around Fort SrtrUmrf 



OLD FORT SWELLING 

1819-1858 



BY 

MARCUS L. HANSEN 




PUBLISHED AT IOWA CITY IOWA IN 1918 BY 
THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA 






D. 0^ ^• 

MAY t3 1918 



THE TORCH PRESS 

CEDAR RAPIDS 

IOWA 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

The establishment in 1917 of a camp at Fort 
Snelling for the training of officers for the army 
has aroused curiosity in the history of Old Fort 
Snelling. Again as in the days of the pioneer 
settlement of the Northwest the Fort at the junc- 
tion of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers has 
become an object of more than ordinary interest. 

Old Fort Snelling was established in 1819 with- 
in the Missouri Territory on ground which later 
became a part of the Territory of Iowa. Not 
until 1849 was it included within Minnesotii 
boundaries. Linked with the early annals of 
Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, 
and the Northwest, the history of Old Fort Snell- 
ing is the common heritage of many common- 
wealths in the Upper Mississippi Valley. 

The period covered in this volume begins with 
the establishment of the Fort in 1819 and ends 
with the temporary abandonment of the site as a 
military post in 1858. 

Benj. F. Shambaugh 

Office of the Superintendent and Editor 

The State Historical Society of Iowa 

Iowa City Iowa 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

The position which the military post holds in 
western history is sometimes misunderstood. So 
often has a consideration of it been left to the novel- 
ist's pen that romantic glamour has obscured the 
permanent contribution made by many a lonely post 
to the development of the surrounding region. The 
western fort was more than a block-house or a picket. 
Being the home of a handful of soldiers did not give 
it its real importance: it was an institution and 
should be studied as such. Old Fort Snelling is a 
type of the many remote military stations which 
were scattered throughout the West upon the upper 
waters of the rivers or at intermediate places on the 
interminable stretches of the westward trails. 

This study of the history and influence of Old Fort 
Snelling was first undertaken at the suggestion of 
Dr. Louis Pelzer of the State University of Iowa, 
and was carried on under his supervision. The re- 
sults of the investigation w^ere accepted as a thesis in 
the Graduate College of the State University of Iowa 
in June, 1917. Upon the suggestion of Dr. Benj. F. 
Shambaugh, Superintendent of The State Historical 
Society of Iowa, the plan of the work was changed, 
its scope enlarged, many new sources of information 



\aii AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

were consulted, and the entire manuscript rewritten. 

Connected with so many of the aspects of western 
history, Old Fort Snelling is pictured in accounts 
both numerous and varied. The reports of govern- 
ment officials, the relations of travellers and explor- 
ers, and the reminiscences of fur traders, pioneer 
settlers, and missionaries show the Fort as each 
author, looking at it from the angle of his particular 
interest, saw it. These published accounts are found 
in the Annual Reports of the Secretary of War, in 
the Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs, and in the works of travellers and pioneers. 
Many of the most important sources are the briefer 
accounts printed in the Minnesota Historical Collec- 
tions. The author's dependence upon these sources 
of information is evident upon every page of this 
volume. 

But not alone from these sources, which are read- 
ily accessible, is this account of the Old Fort drawn. 
A half-burned diar}^, the account books of the post 
sutler, letter books filled with correspondence dealing 
with matters which are often trivial, and statistical 
returns of men and equipment are sources which 
from their nature may never be printed. But in 
them reposes much of the material upon wiiich this 
book is based. The examination of all the docu- 
ments which offered any prospect of throwing light 
upon the subject was made possible for the author 
as Research Assistant in The State Historical Society 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE ix 

of Iowa. And in this connection I wish to express 
my appreciation for the many courtesies which I 
have received from those in whose custody these 
sources are kept. To Dr. Solon J. Buck, Superin- 
tendent of the Minnesota Historical Society and the 
members of the library staff of that Society I am 
indebted for many kindnesses. Dr. M. M. Quaife, 
Superintendent of the State Historical Society of 
Wisconsin, placed at my disposal thousands of sheets 
of transcripts made from the records of the Indian 
Department at Washington and kept in the library 
of the Historical Society at Madison. At the His- 
torical Department of Iowa at Des Moines, and in 
the library of the Kansas State Historical Society 
at Topeka opportunity was granted to examine valu- 
able manuscripts. General H. P. McCain, Adjutant- 
General of the United States, had a search made of 
the records on file in the archives of the War Depart- 
ment at Washington, and such papers as dealt with 
Fort Snelling were consulted by the author. 

My fellow workers on the staff of The State His- 
torical Society of Iowa have often aided me with 
suggestions and criticisms. To the Superintendent 
of the Society, Dr. Benj. F. Shambaugh, I wish to 
express my appreciation not only for the advice, 
encouragement, and inspiration w^hich he freely 
gave, but also for the willingness with w^hich he made 
possible the investigation of every clue to sources of 
information by correspondence or by personal visit. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE 



Moreover, tlie manuscript has been carefully edited 
by him. The task of seeing the work through the 
press has been performed by Associate Editor Dr. 
Dan E. Clark, who also carefully read the manu- 
script and compiled the index. Miss Helen Otto 
assisted in the verification of the manuscript. 

Makcus L. Hansen 

The State Historical Society of Iowa 
Iowa City Iowa 



CONTENTS 



Editor's Introduction 

Author's Preface 

I. A Century and a Half of Foreign 
Rule 

II. The Evolution of Fort Snelling 

III. Forty Years of Frontier Duty 

IV. Lords of the North . 
V. A Soldier's World . 

VI. Glimpses of Garrison Life 
VII. The Fort and Indian Life 
VIII. The Sioux-Chlppewa Feuds 
IX. The Fur Trade . 
X. Soldiers of the Cross 
XI. The Fashionable Tour 
XII. The Chippewa Treaty of 1837 
XIII. Citizens and Soldiers 
Notes and References 
Index ..... 



V 

vii 

1 

18 

31 

54 

73 

84 

103 

119 

135 

146 

159 

176 

187 

205 

251 



A CENTURY AND A HALF OF FOREIGN RULE 

On an autumn day in 1766 Captain Jonathan Car- 
ver stood upon the bluff which rises at the junction 
of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers and viewed 
the wonderful landscape of prairie and wooded val- 
leys that lay before him. As a captain in the colonial 
troops of Connecticut he had served his king faith- 
fully in the late war with France; and now^ in the 
days of peace which followed the glorious victory he 
sought to continue his usefulness by exploring the 
vast regions w^hich had been added to the domains 
of Great Britain and Spain. Three years of travel 
in the wilderness taught him that those wild lands 
would not always be the haunt of savage animals 
and wandering tribes. 

'*To what power or authority this new world will 
become dependent, after it has arisen from its pres- 
ent uncultivated state, time alone can discover", he 
later wrote. ''But as the seat of Empire, from time 
immemorial has been gradually progressive towards 
the West, there is no doubt but that at some future 
period, mighty kingdoms will emerge from these wil- 
dernesses, and stately palaces and solemn temples, 
with gilded spires reaching the skies, supplant the 

1 



OLD FORT SNELLING 



Indian huts, whose only decorations are the barbar- 
ous trophies of their vanquished enemies. ' ' ^ 

Not until the twenty-fourth day of August, 1819, 
when less than a hundred soldiers of the Fifth 
United States Infantry disembarked opposite the 
towering height where a few years later rose the 
white walls of Fort Snelling, did the nation which 
was to rule assert its power. The event was, indeed, 
epochal. It not only marked a change in the sover- 
eignty over the vast region, but it also made possible 
the development of those factors which were to bring 
about the great transformation. 

It was for the "upper country" that this fort was 
built — a country stretching from the Great Lakes 
across the wooded headwaters of the Mississippi and 
Minnesota rivers to the plains of the Missouri. The 
history of this region is marked by several distinct 
periods: the coming of the French traders, the 
supremacy of the English companies, the establish- 
ment of military posts of the United States, and the 
building of American communities. 

Although at the opening of the second decade of 
the nineteenth century the American troops quar- 
tered on the west banks of the Mississippi River 
were on soil that, in name, had been American for 
sixteen years, and although they looked over the 
river to land that had since 1783 belonged to their 
country, yet they had in fact taken possession of a 
foreign land. English, French, and Spanish flags 
had at various times waved over certain parts of it. 



PERIOD OF FOREIGN RULE 



Foreign influence, during a century and a half, had 
become widespread and deeply rooted. 

When in 1634 Jean Nicollet visited the Wisconsin 
country the French advance into the upper North- 
west had begTin.^ From 1658 to 1660 Radisson and 
Grroseilliers wandered among the tribes and brought 
the first canoe loads of furs to Canada from the far 
West. Then along with the missionaries, Hennepin 
and Marquette, came the coureurs des hois, Nicholas 
Perrot and Daniel Greyloson Duluth. It is unneces- 
sary to recite in detail the exploits of these French- 
men and their successors.^ For a century the songs 
of unknown boatmen rose from the waters of the 
western rivers; unknown traders smoked in the 
lodges of Sioux and Chippewas ; and hardy wander- 
ers whose feats of discovery are unrecorded, leaving 
behind the Missouri River, saw from afar the won- 
ders of the ' ' Shining Mountains ' '.* But if no record 
of them remains, their influence was lasting. Living 
with the natives, supplying their needs by barter, 
and marrying the Indian girls, the French gained a 
remarkable power over the northwestern tribes, 
which caused them to consider whoever came from 
Canada their friend, even after the English govern- 
ment had supplanted the French in power. 

West of the lakes the transition from the French 
to the English rule created no disturbances, such as 
Pontiac's conspiracy which so completely disrupted 
the trade in the East.^ Continuing the French pol- 
icy and also their posts and voyageurs, the Scottish 



OLD FORT SNELLING 



merchants of Montreal, organized in 1784 as the 
North West Company, pushed westward from Green 
Bay and southward from Lake Winnipeg. This ad- 
vance was continued until the opening years of the 
next century. Although on nominally Spanish terri- 
tory, the tribes on the upper Missouri were won from 
the Spanish traders at St. Louis by such severe cut- 
ting in prices that the latter could not compete. The 
posts of the North West Company on the Red River 
of the North became the resort for many of the west- 
ern tribes. "^ 

The diverting of the trade of these natives, who 
would naturally have come down the Missouri where 
American traders could meet them and be benefited, 
was noticed by President Jefferson, who, on January 
18, 1803, wrote to Congress : ' 'It is, however, under- 
stood, that the country on that river is inhabited by 
numerous tribes, who furnish great supplies of furs 
and peltry to the trade of another nation, carried on 
in a high latitude, through an infinite number of 
portages and lakes, shut up by ice through a long 
season." In this same message was included a rec- 
ommendation that a small expedition be sent up to 
confer with the tribes with respect to the admission 
of American traders.'^ 

But the purchase of Louisiana altered matters. 
It was not only a matter of trade, but one of sover- 
eignty. A double movement was initiated : one to 
ascend the Mississippi under Zebulon M. Pike, and 
the other the Missouri under Captain Meriwether 
Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark. The reports 



PERIOD OF FOREIGN RULE 



of these two expeditions indicate how firm a grip the 
English traders had upon the Indians of the upper 
Northwest. 

The expedition of Lewis and Clark ascended the 
Missouri and passed over the mountains to the Col- 
umbia River which was followed to the coast. The 
first winter, from late in October, 1804, to early in 
April, 1805, was spent in a fort which was con- 
structed in the village of the Mandans, near the loca- 
tion of the present city of Mandan in North Dakota. 
Here was abundant opportunity to investigate the 
fur trade. Nor had they long to wait. On the 27th 
of November, seven British traders arrived from the 
North West Company's post on the Assiniboine 
River to barter with the river tribes. The next day, 
in council with the Mandan chiefs, the Americans 
warned the Indians not to receive medals or flags 
from the foreigners if they wished to be friends with 
the "Great American Father". A day later this 
warning was communicated to the traders them- 
selves who promised to refrain from any such acts.^ 
How well they kept their promises later events 
showed. The Lewis and Clark expedition was only 
a passing pageant; for by the time of the War of 
1812, the only American traders who ventured to do 
business on the upper waters were practically driven 
off by the foreign companies.^ 

The report of Zebulon M. Pike indicates that con- 
ditions were much worse on the upper Mississippi. 
Leaving St. Louis on August 9, 1805, he returned to 
that place on April 30, 1806. About two months 



OLD FORT SNELLING 



were spent at a fort erected near the site of Little 
Falls, where he left a few men and pushed on with 
the rest of the company to Leech Lake. Conversa- 
tion with the fur traders and councils with the In- 
dians revealed the extent of the commerce of the 
North West Company. He heard of permanent 
trading posts on the south side of Lake Superior and 
at the headwaters of the St. Croix Eiver ; and he saw 
at Lower Red Cedar Lake, Sandy Lake, and Leech 
Lake the rude stockades and log buildings which 
were called forts. ^° These three posts were included 
in the "Department of Fond du Lac" and were the 
centers from which in the year 1805, trade with the 
Indians was carried on by one hundred and nine 
men." By means of the rivers and portages of the 
wilderness the furs were brought to Canada without 
passing a custom house, and thus the United. States 
was defrauded of duties which, it was estimated, 
would amount to $26,000 annually.^^ 

Pike objected to many of the evident signs of Brit- 
ish sovereignty: the British flag flying above the 
headquarters of the department of Fond du Lac was 
shot down;^" many of the Indians were induced to 
give up their British medals and flags ; ^* and Hugh 
M'Gillis, agent of the company for the district, in 
response to Pike's letter of complaint, promised in 
the future to refrain from displaying the British 
flag, presenting medals, or talking politics to the In- 
dians. ^^ But his promises were no more seriously 
given than those of his brethren on the Missouri. 

Little of permanent value would have been accom- 



PERIOD OF FOREIGN RULE 



plished if the acts of the explorer on September 23, 
1805, had been omitted. The instructions issued to 
Pike on July 30, 1805, stated: "You will be pleased 
to obtain permission from the Indians who claim the 
ground, for the erection of military posts and trad- 
ing-houses at the mouth of the river St. Pierre [the 
Minnesota River], the falls of St. Anthony, and 
every other critical point which may fall under your 
observation ; these permissions to be granted in for- 
mal conferences, regularly recorded, and the ground 
marked off. " ^*^ 

When Pike reached the mouth of the Minnesota 
River, the natural features of the locality convinced 
him of the advantages which would arise from a fort 
located at that point. From the high bluff lying 
between the Minnesota and the Mississippi rivers 
the course of both streams would be under the sweep 
of the guns. Sheer walls of stone rising from the 
Mississippi could prevent invasion ; and the fur trad- 
ing business could be regulated, as all boats entering 
or leaving the Indian country must use one or the 
other of the two rivers. 

A "bower" was constructed of sails, and on Sep- 
tember 23rd Pike spoke to the Sioux Indians there 
assembled concerning the transfer of Louisiana, the 
futility of their wars with the Chippewas, and the 
evils of rum. He asked them to cede to the United 
States lands for military posts, and dwelt on the 
value of these posts to the Indians. To this the 
chiefs assented, receiving in return presents valued 
at $200 and sixty gallons of liquor. The terms of 



OLD FORT SNELLING 



the treaty provided that the Sioux should cede to the 
United States tracts ''for the purpose of establish- 
ment of military posts," at the mouth of the Minne- 
sota and at the mouth of the St. Croix. A money 
consideration was also mentioned, but a blank was 
left which was later filled in by the Senate with 
$2000.^' 

The government, busy with distressing foreign 
affairs, neglected to make a permanent occupation 
of the explored region. A struggle between the 
American and British governments was arising over 
events far remote from the northern lakes and 
woods. But the Canadian authorities saw the neces- 
sity of having Indian allies for the approaching 
struggle. As early as 1807 reports from the West 
indicated hostile feelings on the part of the Indians 
toward the Americans, and an official at Mackinac 
wrote on August 30, 1807, that this condition "is 
principally to be attributed to the influence of for- 
eigners trading in the country.'"® Captain A. Gray, 
who was sent to inquire into the aid which the Hud- 
son's Bay Company and the North West Company 
could furnish, reported to Sir George Prevost, com- 
mander of the British forces in Canada, on January 
12, 1812 : "By means of these Companies, w^e might 
let loose the Indians upon them throughout the whole 
extent of their Western frontier, as they have a most 
commanding influence over them." In a memoran- 
dum of plans for the defence of Canada, General 
Brock noted that "the Co-operation of the Indians 



PERIOD OF FOREIGN RULE 9 

will be attended with great expence in presents pro- 
visions &c. "^^ 

To this alliance the Indians gave willing ears. 
Their interests lay with the British rather than with 
the Americans. The economic stability of Canada 
rested upon the fur trade, which in turn could sur- 
vive only if the free life of the hunt and the chase, 
which the Indians loved so well, was left them. But 
with the Americans were associated the making of 
treaties and the ceding of land. The Indians pre- 
ferred to see upon their rivers the canoe of the trad- 
er rather than the flatboat of the pioneer.^" 

The coming of hostilities was received joyfully by 
all the inhabitants of the Northwest. To the Indian 
it meant an opportunity to avenge past wrongs ; the 
Canadian hoped to make secure his present condi- 
tion ; and the American settler saw a chance to drive 
out both enemies — Indians and foreign traders 
alike. The news of the declaration of war reached 
the great rendezvous of the North West Company at 
Fort William on the northern shore of Lake Supe- 
rior on the sixteenth of July, 1812, and the next day 
one of the traders left for the interior to rouse the 
natives. The agent of the company at this post 
wrote enthusiastically : ' * I have not the least doubt 
but our force, will in ten days hence, amount to at 
least five thousand effective men."^^ 

But already a sufficient number of Indians had 
come to the aid of the English to render service. 
On the very next day the English flag replaced the 



10 • OLD FORT SNELLING 

American above the fort at Mackinac. No sooner 
had the news of the beginning of hostilities be- 
come known at the neighboring British post at St. 
Joseph's than immediate preparations were made. 
The Indians were marshalled for the attack, and a 
vessel belonging to the North West Company was 
requisitioned. The morning of July 17th revealed 
the American fort surrounded by Indians and com- 
manded by a cannon which had been dragged upon 
a height of land. Seeing the futility of resistance 
the garrison surrendered and marched out before 
noon. Of the total attacking force of 1021 there 
were Indians to the number of 715, of whom the 
British leader wrote, ' ^ although these people 's minds 
were much heated, yet as soon as they heard the 
Capitulation was sigiied they all returned to their 
Canoes, and not one drop either of Man's or Ani- 
mal's Blood was Spilt, till I gave an Order for a cer- 
tain number of Bullocks to be purchased for them".^- 
The ease with which the capture was made had the 
effect of bringing to the English standards all the 
Indians of the Northwest, except a part of the Mi- 
amis and Delawares, in spite of the fact that they 
had earlier made promises of neutrality.^^ 

Although the capture of the fort at Mackinac was 
accomplished without any Indian atrocities, the suc- 
cess of that day was to precipitate a massacre, long 
to rankle in the minds of the pioneers of the West. 
Immediately upon hearing of the capture of the fort, 
General Hull wrote to Captain Heald in command at 
Fort Dearborn ordering the evacuation of that post. 



PERIOD OF FOREIGN RULE 11 

On the morning of August ISth, as the small garri- 
son of fifty-five reg-ulars and twelve militia were 
leaving the fort with their women and children, they 
were fallen upon by a force of five hundred Indians. 
Twenty-six regulars, all the militiamen, two women, 
and twelve children were murdered on the spot. An 
unknown number of wounded prisoners were that 
evening victims at what the Indians termed a "gen- 
eral frolic".^* 

In the meantime Robert Dickson, who for many 
years had been a Prairie du Chien fur trader, was 
continuing his activities as recruiter of Indians for 
British service-. This was the same Dickson who 
had in 1802 received an American commission as a 
justice of the peace,'^^ and had later entertained Pike 
and his men ''with a supper and a dram", impress- 
ing the American explorer as a man of ' ' open, frank 
manners. ' ' ^'^ Now, in January, 1813, he was ap- 
pointed by Great Britain ''agent for the Indians of 
the several Nations to the Westward of Lake Hu- 
ron"." 

By June 23, 1813, he had already sent eight 
hundred Indians to Detroit and had collected six 
hundred at Mackinac.-^ The summer of 1813 was 
spent in operations about Detroit, but in the winter 
he was again active in the West."" Great alarm was 
felt at St. Louis when rumors came telling of the 
great force he was collecting.^" Accordingly, late in 
the spring of 1814, Governor William Clark of Mis- 
souri Territory proceeded up the Mississippi and at 
Prairie du Chien built a stockade named Fort Shelbv. 



12 OLD FORT SNELLING 

It was garrisoned by about sixty men.^^ News of 
this movement soon came to Mackinac, and prompted 
the British commandant to prepare a counter-expe- 
dition. On the seventeenth of July the force com- 
posed of five hundred and fifty men, of whom four 
hundred were Indians, arrived outside the post. 
Immediately a summons to surrender was sent. 
The American commander at first refused, but two 
days later agreed to capitulate providing the Indians 
would be kept in check. The surrender took place 
on July 20th, and the captor christened the stockade 
Fort McKay in honor of himself.^" 

Thus, the Indians about the Mississippi had been 
present at the surrender of two posts and had par- 
ticipated in a massacre. British arms had been 
successful, and the close of the war found British 
prestige very high. 

The Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1914, closed 
the war ; and Article IX of that treaty provided that 
the United States should make peace with the Indian 
tribes and restore to them the "possessions, rights 
and privileges" which they had enjoyed before hos- 
tilities.^^ President Madison accordingly appointed 
William Clark, Ninian Edwards, and Auguste Chou- 
teau as commissioners to enter into treaties of peace 
with the warring tribes of the upper Mississippi and 
the upper Missouri. Only with extreme difficulty 
was word of the negotiations sent to the tribes. The 
hostility of the Indians living about the mouth of the 
Rock River made it necessarv that the messenger 



PERIOD OF FOREIGN RULE 13 

proceed to Prairie du Chien by way of the Missouri 
River, and then across country.^* 

Although treaties were concluded with those who 
did come to the council, none were eager to negotiate. 
The Chippewas, Menominees, and Winnebagoes even 
refused to send delegations; and the Sacs of Rock 
River not only refused to attend, but also showed 
their contempt by continually harassing the frontier 
settlements during the time of the negotiations.^^ 
This opposition, the commissioners reported, was 
due to the presence of an unusual number of British 
traders among the Indians. The report closed with 
the opinion that * ' the exertion of the military power 
of the Grovernment will be necessary to secure the 
peace and safety of this country. ' ' ^'^ 

For some years it had been customary for the 
British authorities to send presents to the Indians 
on the Mississippi, and Robert Dickson had promised 
the natives that the practice would be continued. 
But with the coming of peace this custom was not 
allowed by the Americans. Accordingly, in June, 
1815, word was sent to the river tribes, that all who 
came to the British headquarters at Drummond 
Island in Lake Huron, would be supplied. By June 
19th of the next year four hundred Indians had ar- 
rived at the post — mainly Sioux. To sympathetic 
ears they reported that they feared that the Amer- 
icans were planning their extinction, and a confed- 
eration was being formed to resist the building of 
American forts on the Indian lands. As late as 



14 OLD FORT SNELLING 

1825, of the four thousand Indians in the habit of 
visiting Drummond Island, three thousand came 
from the region west and southwest of Lake Hu- 
ron — that is from American territory."' These mot- 
ley processions which trailed through the American 
woods, stopping to beg at the American posts, were 
not sloM^ in being reported. It did not take a vivid 
imagination to see that the renewal of border war- 
fare was inevitable.^^ 

This danger was increased by the rapid develop- 
ment of the West following the war. Just as over 
the mountain trails and down the rivers, Kentucky 
and Tennessee had been settled before the war, now 
the States of the Old Northwest received their pio- 
neers. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, w^ho made his first 
trip down the Ohio at this time (1818), remarked: 
' ' I mingled in this crowd, and, while listening to the 
anticipations indulged in, it seemed to me that the 
war had not, in reality, been fought for 'free trade 
and sailors' rights' where it had commenced, but to 
gain a knowledge of the world beyond the Allegha- 
nies. ... To judge by the tone of general con- 
versation, they meant, in their generation, to plow 
the Mississippi Valley from its head to its foot." ^^ 

The flatboats on the rivers, the crowded ferries, 
and the caravans crossing the prairies were familiar 
scenes. In The Legend of Sleepy Holloiv, which ap- 
peared in 1819, Washington Irving puts this fondest 
dream into the mind of his hero, Ichabod : ' ' Nay, 
his busy fancy already realized his hopes, and pre- 
sented to him the blooming Katrina with a whole 
family of children, mounted on the top of a wagon 



PERIOD OF FOREIGN RULE 15 

loaded with household trumpery, with pots and 
kettles dangling beneath ; and he beheld himself be- 
striding a pacing mare, with a colt at her heels, set- 
ting out for Kentucky, Tennessee, or the Lord knows 
where." When he wrote this the author was not 
using his imagination : it was a picture he saw 
daily.**' 

The extent of this westward movement is indicated 
by the provisions made for the political organization 
of these growing settlements. Indiana achieved 
statehood in 1816 and Illinois in 1818. Across the 
river in Missouri the population had grown from 
20,000 in 1810 to 66,000 in 1820,*^ and the weighty 
questions concerning her admission were being dis- 
cussed in Washington. 

With an expanding frontier brought into contact 
with hostile Indians, trouble was bound to result. 
Various plans were proposed to deal with the prob- 
lem. It was reported that General Jackson would 
take charge of active military operations against the 
Indians of the upper Mississippi.*" One agent sug- 
gested that ''three or four months' full feeding on 
meat and bread, even without ardent spirit, will 
bring on disease, and, in six or eight months, great 
mortality. ... I believe more Indians might be 
killed with the expense of $100,000 in this way, than 
$1,000,000 expended in the support of armies to go 
against them."*' 

Fortunately, wiser counsels than either of these 
prevailed to control the Indians : the control of the 
fur trade was necessary. It was felt, and rightly, 
that much of the trouble in the West was due to the 



16 OLD FORT SNELLING 

power of the British traders. Accordingly, by an 
act of Congress of April 29, 1816, it was provided 
that ** licenses to trade with the Indians within the 
territorial limits of the United States shall not be 
granted to any but citizens of the United States, un- 
less by the express direction of the President of the 
United States, and upon such terms and conditions 
as the public interest may, in his opinion, require." 
To carry this act into effect the president was au- 
thorized to call upon the military force.'** 

This legislation was most opportune, since by the 
commercial convention of October 20, 1818, the 
northern boundary was definitely agreed upon as the 
forty-ninth parallel westward from the Lake of the 
Woods to the Rocky Mountains.*^ Ever since the 
negotiators of the Treaty of Paris of 1783 had in- 
serted a geographical impossibility by declaring that 
the boundary should extend due west from the Lake 
of the Woods to the Mississippi, there had existed a 
vagueness as to where the actual line should be 
drawn.*® In 1806 the British traders thought it 
would be run from the lake to the source of the 
river ;*^ and as late as 1818 Benjamin 'Fallon 
wrote from Prairie du Chien that Robert Dickson 
'4s directed to build a fort on the highest land be- 
tween Lac du Travers and Red river, which he sup- 
poses will be the established line between the two 
countries."*^ But with the boundary now defined, 
the area where the trade laws were to be enforced 
was evident. 

The method of Indian trade by foreigners was to 



PERIOD OF FOREIGN RULE 17 

be supplanted by an extension of the United States 
trading house system. This was a group of trading- 
houses, conducted by the government, where the In- 
dians could exchange their furs for goods at cost 
price and thus avoid both the deceit and whiskey of 
the private merchant, although they were often will- 
ing to submit to the one for the sake of the other/^ 
As early as 1805 Pike had promised the Indians, in 
council assembled, that the government intended to 
build a trading house at the mouth of the Minnesota 
River.'^° The commissioners at Portage des Sioux, in 
1815, had been instructed to inform the tribes that 
^'it is intended to establish strong posts very high 
up the Mississippi, and from the Mississippi to Lake 
Michigan, and to open trading-houses at those posts, 
or other suitable places for their accommodation,"^^ 
In 1818 T. L. McKenny, Superintendent of Indian 
Trade, recommended the building of seven addi- 
tional trading houses, one of which was to be located 
on the "River St. Peters, at or about its junction 
with the Mississippi."^^ 

Thus, through the Indian department steps w^ere 
being taken to inaugurate a new regime in the upper 
Northw^est. But Indian agents and trading houses 
needed the protection and administrative arm of the 
military department in order to be effective. The 
forward movement of the military frontier during 
the years succeeding the war is significant as mark- 
ing a trend towards the Americanization of a great 
region. 



II 

THE EVOLUTION OF FORT SNELLING 

When the War of 1812 broke out in the Northwest, 
the Americans had only two advanced posts — Mack- 
inac and Fort Dearborn. Of these, one w^as cap- 
tured during the hostilities, and the other Avas evac- 
uated. An attempt was made to build a post at 
Prairie du Chien, but it quickly passed into English 
hands and remained in their possession until the 
news of peace had reached that frontier station. 
But after the Treaty of Ghent was sig-ned the line of 
the military frontier was quickly advanced in order 
to safeguard the Indian agents, the trading houses, 
and the advancing settlements. 

Fort Dearborn was re-occupied on July 4, 1815. 
Mackinac was transferred to American hands on 
July 18, 1815. In the fall of the same year Colonel 
R. C. Nichols of the Eighth United States Infantry 
attempted to ascend the Mississippi to Rock Island, 
but was compelled to pass the winter in the vicinity 
of the mouth of the Des Moines River. On May 10, 
1816, however, he reached Rock Island, where the 
construction of Fort Armstrong was undertaken. 
June 21st of the same year saM^ the re-occupation of 
the site of Fort McKay at Prairie du Chien; and 
Fort Crawford soon protected this important point 

18 



EVOLUTION OF FORT SNELLING 19 

at the junction of the Mississippi and Wisconsin 
rivers. One other point, vital in all western trans- 
portation was at the head of Green Bay at the mouth 
of the Fox River. Colonel John Miller of the Third 
Infantry arrived at this place on August 7, 1816, and 
soon began the erection of Fort Howard. ^^ 

But the government was not content with these 
movements. In a report dated December 22, 1817, 
the Secretary of War, J. C. Calhoun, wrote to the 
House of Representatives that "a board of the most 
skilful officers in our service has been constituted to 
examine the whole line of our frontier, and to deter- 
mine on the position and extent of works that may 
be necessary to the defence of the country. ' ' ''* Plans 
had already been made. During the summer of 1817 
Major Stephen H. Long, a topographical engineer in 
the United States Arni}^, had made a journey to the 
Falls of St. Anthony in a six-oared skiff and had 
approved the position at the mouth of the Minnesota 
River as a location for a fort.^^ Other plans were 
soon announced. In the spring of 1818 The Wash- 
ington City Gazette stated that a fort would be built 
on the Missouri River at the mouth of the Yellow- 
stone River ; ^^ and a second report of the Secretary 
of War on December 11, 1818, indicated that the site 
at the mouth of the Minnesota would soon be occu- 
pied." 

On the tenth of February, 1819, the War Depart- 
ment ordered the Fifth Infantry to concentrate at 
Detroit, after which it would be transported across 
Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, up the Fox River, 



20 OLD FORT SNELLING 

and down the Wisconsin River to Prairie du Chien, 
where a part would garrison Fort Crawford, a part 
would proceed to Fort Armstrong, and the remain- 
der would ascend the Mississippi and near the Falls 
of St. Anthony erect a post which would be the head- 
quarters of the regiment.^^ This movement was 
closely associated with that on the Missouri River 
called the Yellowstone Expedition. Both move- 
ments were part of one system — a comprehensive 
attempt to possess the northwestern frontier. The 
thoroughness of the plan is shown by the program 
outlined for the troops for the year 1820: three 
forts were to be built on the Missouri River ; the nav- 
igation of that river was to be improved ; roads were 
to be opened between the two diverging lines of 
posts (those on the Missouri and those on the Missis- 
sippi) ; and the Fox and Wisconsin rivers were to 
be connected by a canal. Thus the transportation 
of supplies would be facilitated, and in case of hos- 
tilities the forts could cooperate in the military oper- 
ations.^^ 

The western part of this general movement was a 
failure. Indeed, the only result was the construc- 
tion of a post at the point then known as Council 
Bluff (now Fort Calhoun, Nebraska), which after an 
existence of eight years was abandoned. Congress, 
disgusted with the management of the undertaking, 
refused to vote the funds necessary for the complete 
fulfillment of the project.*'" Accordingly, no perma- 
nent military post existed upon the upper Missouri 
until 1855, when the United States government pur- 



EVOLUTION OF FORT SNELLING 21 

chased from the American Fur Company their sta- 
tion called Fort Pierre and transformed it into a 
military establishment." The failure of the Yellow- 
stone Expedition made more difficult the work of 
Fort Snelling. The range of its influence extended 
to the Missouri, and for forty years it was of more 
importance than even its originators had planned. 

The Fifth Infantry, to which the difficult task of 
establishing a fort at the junction of the Mississippi 
and Minnesota rivers was assigned was stationed at 
various places. Lieutenant Colonel Henry Leaven- 
worth, who was the commanding officer of the regi- 
ment, had been located at Prairie du Chien as Super- 
intendent of Indian Affairs.''^ Lieutenant Nathan 
Clark was living at Hartford, Connecticut.^^ But by 
May 14th the main part of the regiment was ready to 
leave Detroit. Schooners brought them through 
Lake Huron, the Straits of Mackinac, and across 
Lake Michigan to Fort Howard on Green Bay. Cap- 
tain Whistler of the Third United States Infantry, 
then stationed at this post, had prepared bateaux 
for the use of the troops, and on June 7th the ascent 
of the Fox Eiver was commenced.^* The Winnebago 
chief "Four Legs", whose village was at the outlet 
of Lake Winnebago, had the custom of exacting 
tribute from travellers using the Fox- Wisconsin 
route. When the troops of the Fifth Infantry came 
to the site, "Four Legs" sent the message, "The 
Lake is locked." Whereupon Colonel Leavenworth, 
showing the messenger his rifle, replied : ' ' tell him, 
that this is the key, and I shall unlock it and go on." 



22 OLD FORT SNELLING 

Upon receiving this belligerent reply, the chief al- 
lowed the troops to pass; and finally on June 30th 
the bateaux were moored near Fort Crawford and 
Prairie du Chien.^'' 

At Fort Crawford there was a tedious wait. Pro- 
visions, ordnance, ammunition, and recruits were ex- 
pected from St. Louis. On July 5th Major Thomas 
Forsyth arrived from St. Louis. He had been or- 
dered by the War Department to bring two thousand 
dollars worth of goods to the Sioux Indians in pay- 
ment for the reservation ceded by them to Pike.''^ 
Day after day passed. Finally, on July 17th a cer- 
tain Mr. Shaw came with news that the recruits could 
be expected soon. On July 31st this curt entry is 
made in Forsyth's journal: ''no boats, no recruits, 
no news, nor anything else from St. Louis." The 
next day Major Marston was sent with twenty- seven 
troops to garrison Fort Armstrong at Rock Island ; 
and on August 2nd Forsyth recorded : ' * Thank God 
a boat loaded with ordnance and stores of different 
kinds arrived to-day, and said a provision boat would 
arrive to-morrow, but no news of the recruits. ' ' ''^ 

Colonel Leavenworth at once made preparations 
to ascend the river. The two large boats that had 
brought up supplies w^ere engaged, and at eight 
o'clock on the morning of Sunday, August 8th, the 
flotilla set out — the two large boats, fourteen bat- 
eaux, the boat of Major Forsyth, and the barge of 
Colonel Leavenworth. In the party were ninety- 
eight soldiers and twent}^ boatmen. There w^ere 
others also whose presence in that wild region would 



EVOLUTION OF FORT SNELLING 23 

not be expected: Mrs. Gooding, the wife of one of 
the captains; Mrs. Nathan Clark, the wife of the 
commissary; and little Charlotte Ouisconsin Clark, 
who had been born scarcely an hour after the regi- 
ment reached Fort Crawford. The knowledge that 
they were upon the last stage of their journey caused 
a feeling of cheerfulness among the soldiers, and the 
first day they proceeded a distance of eighteen 
miles.^^ 

For sixteen days the boatmen poled their bateaux 
up the river. Once when there was a "Great ap- 
pearance of wind" the sails were hoisted. At other 
times the heavily loaded boats were moved with dif- 
ficulty through the shallow water. Occasionally fog 
and rain impeded their progress. Bad water made 
half of the soldiers sick before the journey was 
ended ; and to avoid the mosquitoes on the river, the 
men preferred to sleep on the banks, although every 
morning there was a heavy dew. On August 17th 
the lower end of Lake Pepin was reached and here 
a delay of several hours occurred while the men 
drew provisions from the supply boats, and washed 
their dirty linen.^® 

Major Forsyth stopped at the Indian villages to 
distribute presents and to announce to the natives 
the object of the coming of the troops, and the value 
they would derive from having a fort in their midst. 
On Sunday, August 22nd, he encamped a few miles 
ahead of the main body of the expedition, but by 
eight 'clock the next morning all the boats had come 
up. Impatient to reach the end of the journey, 



24 OLD FORT SNELLING 

Major Forsyth again pushed forward and at four 
o'clock in the afternoon reached the mouth of the 
Minnesota River. On the morning of Tuesday, 
August 24, 1819, Colonel Leavenworth arrived in his 
barge ahead of the troops and spent almost the en- 
tire day in looking over the sites available for a 
camp. Finallj", he decided upon a spot on the right 
bank of the Minnesota River, just above its mouth. 
There was no rest for the troops when their boats 
reached the chosen place. "They were immediately 
set to work in making roads up the bank of the river, 
cutting down trees, etc."^" 

If the soldiers had any spare time in their labors 
in which to become interested in their surroundings, 
there was novelty in everything about them. Dur- 
ing the next few days all the nearby chiefs came to 
call upon their new neighbors: they left satisfied 
with the presents and the whiskey which they had 
received. On Saturday a party ascended to the 
Falls of St. Anthony; and on Sunday a visit was 
made to the Indian villages up the Minnesota River. 
It was on Monday that Major Forsyth began his 
return trip, and as the supplies in store were few 
and the long-expected recruits were needed for the 
erection of the camp buildings, Colonel Leavenworth 
set out with him for Prairie du Chien. On Septem- 
ber 1st they met on Lake Pepin two boats and a 
bateau with one hundred and twenty soldiers on 
board. But Colonel Leavenworth continued to 
Prairie du Chien, where he remained some time to 
urge on any boats which might arrive. On Septem- 



EVOLUTION OF FORT SNELLING 25 

ber 5th the one hundred and twenty recruits landed 
at the new camp.'^ 

Log cabins and a stockade were erected while the 
party still lived in the boats on the river. By No- 
vember the temporary barracks were ready for occu- 
pation. Looking forward to a pleasant winter, the 
name ''Cantonment New Hope" was applied to the 
embryo fort. The more scientific among the men 
examined the country round about, and saw in the 
hills visions of mines of precious metals. "Would 
not the employment of the troops in the manufacture 
of Copper and Iron be advantageous to the govern- 
ment?", wrote one of these energetic soldiers. But 
the succeeding months were not to give an oppor- 
tunity for such occupations.^^ 

Added to the natural monotony of a wilderness 
post, there was homesickness and suffering during 
the first winter. The quarters that had been built 
were inadequate for protection from the cold of 
that climate. "Once during that memorable six 
months", runs the account of one of the inhabitants 
of Cantonment New Hope, "the roof of our cabin 
blew off, and the walls seemed about to fall in. My 
father, sending my mother and brother to a place of 
safety, held up the chimney to prevent a total down- 
fall ; while the baby, who had been pushed under the 
bed in her cradle, lay there .... until the 
wind subsided, when, upon being drawn out from her 
hiding-place, she evinced great pleasure at the com- 
motion, and seemed to take it all as something de- 
signed especially for her amusement." That baby 



26 OLD FORT SNELLING 

lived to recall the incident almost seventy years 
later." 

Toward the close of the winter there came sick- 
ness, chiefly on account of a lack of proper provi- 
sions. Late in the fall Lieutenant Oliver had left 
Prairie du Chien with supplies in a keel boat. But 
the river froze and the boat was unable to progress 
farther than the vicinity of Hastings, Minnesota. 
Here it was necessary to keep a guard all winter to 
protect the food from the Indians and the wolves. 
The Indians refused to sell them game ; no vegetables 
could be purchased; and the bread was *'two inches 
in the barrels thick with mould ".'^ With such food 
it is no wonder that scurvy, the dreaded disease of 
all frontier posts, broke out among the troops. 
Forty soldiers died before the progress of the dis- 
ease was arrested by home-made remedies and gro- 
ceries brought up by the sutler.'^^ 

This visitation of disease left a profound impres- 
sion upon the survivors. Henry H. Sibley, who had 
often spoken with those who passed through the 
weary months of suffering and sickness, wrote that 
''scurvy broke out in a most malignant form, and 
raged so violently that, for a few days, garrison duty 
was suspended, there being barely well men enough 
in the command to attend to the sick, and to the in- 
terment of the dead. So sudden were the attacks, 
that soldiers in apparent good health when they went 
to bed, were found dead in the morning. One man 
who was relieved from his tour of sentinel duty, and 
stretched himself upon the bench of the guard room. 



EVOLUTION OF FORT SNELLING 27 

four hours after, when he was called upon to resume 
his post, was discovered to be lifeless. " ^*^ 

Thinking that much of the sickness was caused by 
the unhealthful location. Colonel Leavenworth, on 
May 5, 1820, moved the soldiers to a place on the 
west bank of the Mississippi north of the Minnesota 
where there was a great spring of cold water. Here 
the troops were quartered in tents — naming their 
community ''Camp Cold Water"." The immediate 
need was the erection of the permanent post. Col- 
onel Leavenworth chose for the site a position three 
hundred yards west of the crest of the cliff. Some 
material was brought to this place, but no building 
was done. In August Colonel Leavenworth was 
superseded in command by Colonel Josiah Snelling, 
who located the position at the extreme point of land 
between the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. ^^ The 
work of erecting the buildings was done by the sol- 
diers, it being customary at that time to pay the 
soldiers fifteen cents a day in addition to their reg- 
ular pay for this extra work.'^ 

Steps were taken during the summer of 1820 to 
obtain the necessary material. A saw mill was 
needed to make the lumber with which the interior of 
the buildings would be finished and the furniture 
constructed. As the water in Minnehaha Creek was 
very low that year, it was decided to erect the mill 
at the Falls of St. Anthony. Some men were sent 
up the Mississippi River to Rum River to examine 
the timber, and during the winter of 1820-1821 a 
party of soldiers was employed in cutting logs and 



28 OLD FORT SNELLING 

dragging them to the river bank. With the coming 
of spring the logs were floated down to the Falls of 
St. Anthony, where they were sawed into lumber 
and then hauled to the fort by teams. ^° 

The progress made on the building was slow. On 
the tenth of September, 1820, the cornerstone was 
laid.^^ More than a year later, on November 7, 1821, 
Colonel Snelling wrote to the Indian agent, Law- 
rence Taliaferro, that *' nothing new has occurred 
since my return excepting that the other stone bar- 
rack is up & the rafters on."®- The fort was par- 
tially occupied, probably in the fall of 1822, before 
all the surrounding wall had been completed. ^^ But 
it is evident that most of the fort was finished by 
July, 1823, for at that time the troops erected the 
Indian Council House. ^* 

In the meantime other events had been occurring. 
On July 31, 1820, Governor Cass of Michigan Terri- 
tory, who had been on an exploring expedition to the 
upper Mississippi, passed down the river and re- 
mained with the troops until the morning of August 
2nd. A council was held with the Indians, during 
which a peace was made between the Sioux and the 
Chippewas. That the garrison had been busy at 
duties other than erecting buildings is evident from 
the fact that Governor Cass found ninety acres 
planted with corn and potatoes and wheat. From 
the garden green peas had been obtained as early as 
June 15th, and green corn on July 20th. *^ 

In accordance with the plans outlined for the year 
1820 it was proposed to open a road between Council 



EVOLUTION OF FORT SNELLING 29 

Bluff and the new post on the upper Mississippi. 
To survey the route Captain Stephen Watts Kearny 
led a party which consisted of four other officers, 
fifteen soldiers, four servants, an Indian guide and 
his wife and papoose, eight mules, and seven horses. 
The route led from Council Bluff across what is now 
the northern and northwestern part of the State of 
Iowa to Lake Pepin, and then along the Mississippi 
to the new post. From July 25th to July 29th they 
remained with Leavenworth's men, visiting the Falls 
of St. Anthony, examining the country, and on July 
26th going with Lieutenant Grreen and Miss Gooding 
to the east side of the Mississippi. Here Lieutenant 
Green and Miss Gooding were married by Colonel 
Leavenworth, who as Indian agent for the ''North- 
west Territory" could perform his duties on the east 
bank of the river, but not on the west, which was in 
the Missouri Territory.^® 

The fact that the Falls of St. Anthony constituted 
the most noticeable landmark of the \'icinity led to 
the application of its name to the military works. 
The first official inspection of Fort St. Anthony oc- 
curred some time between May 13, 1824, and June 
13, 1824. General Winfield Scott, as the inspector, 
was received with all the honor and entertainment 
that the frontier post could provide. He left favor- 
ably impressed with the work that had been done. 

**I wish to suggest to the general-in-chief , " wrote 
General Scott in his report, ''and through him to the 
War Department, the propriety of calling this work 
Fort Snelling, as a just compliment to the meritori- 



30 OLD FORT SNELLING 

ous officer under whom it has been erected. The 
present name is foreign to all our associations, and 
is, besides, geographically incorrect, as the work 
stands at the junction of the Mississippi and Saint 
Peter's rivers, eight miles below the great falls of 
the Mississippi, called after Saint Anthony. Some 
few years siiice the Secretary of War directed that 
the work at the Council Bluffs should be called Fort 
Atkinson in compliment to the valuable services of 
General Atkinson on the upper Missouri. The above 
proposition is made on the same principle. ' ' 

A general order on January 7, 1825, directed that 
the suggested change should be made. Thereupon 
Fort Snelling began its career as the guardian of the 
Northwest.^' 



Ill 

FORTY YEARS OF FRONTIER DUTY 

It was not the intention of the War Department 
that the influence of the frontier military post should 
be limited by the range of the guns mounted upon its 
walls. The post was to be the center of the Indian 
life for those tribes that dwelt in the vicinity. At 
the same time expeditions, the base of which was to 
be at the fort, were to carry the authority of the 
government out upon the wild Indian lands, and the 
frontier settlements were to look to the soldiers for 
protection.^^ 

How, in its origin. Fort Snelling became part of 
a comprehensive system for the protection of the 
frontier, has been detailed. The events of the forty 
years that followed indicate very clearly the wisdom 
of the men who chose the site. Every phase of 
frontier duty was performed by the troops stationed 
at the mouth of the Minnesota River; and although 
these tasks often took them hundreds of miles from 
the post, and although they often cooperated with 
men from other forts, yet these expeditions may well 
be considered as part of the history of Fort Snelling. 
They were a test of the training received on the 
parade ground, and the successful accomplishment 

31 



32 OLD FORT SNELLING 

of many a difficult duty shows that the post was ful- 
filling the objects of those who built it. 

Prior to 1848 the governmental organization in 
the jurisdiction of which Fort Snelling Avas located 
was very weak. When first erected in 1819 the fort 
was in the Territory of Missouri ( 181 2-1821 ) . Then 
followed a number of years in which it was in unor- 
ganized territory (1821-1834). The Territory of 
Michigan (1834-1836), the Territory of Wisconsin 
(1836-1838), and the Territory of Iowa (1838-1846) 
successively had jurisdiction over it; while in 1849 
it fell w^ithin the newly-organized Territory of Min- 
nesota. Lying far from the seats of government, in 
a region of wandering traders and red men, the fort 
became the exponent of the government — the only 
symbol of governmental restriction in a region al- 
most entirely without law. 

During the first years of its existence while the 
buildings were being erected and the fort was mak- 
ing its place in the Indian life and the fur trade of 
the surrounding region, the frontier was compara- 
tively quiet. The first outbreak occurred in Illinois 
and Wisconsin, where the Winnebagoes were con- 
stantly^ coming into contact with the lead miners 
about Galena. During the summer of 1826 rumors 
came to Fort Snelling of the hostility of this tribe, 
and Colonel Snelling thought it prudent to reenf orce 
the garrison of Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien. 
Three companies of the Fifth Infantry were sent 
away from Fort Snelling on the afternoon of August 
18th under the command of Captain Wilcox. ^^ Al- 



FORTY YEARS OF FRONTIER DUTY 33 

though no actual conflict occurred, the continued 
uneasiness felt because of the presence of the Win- 
nebagoes led the authorities to remove all the troops 
from Fort Crawford to the upper post in the fall of 
that year.^° 

The lack of soldiers among them intensified the 
unruly spirit in the Winnebagoes. In June of the 
next year two keel boats, the "General Ashley" and 
the ' ' 0. H. Perry ' ', which were carrying supplies to 
Fort Snelling noticed an unfriendly feeling among 
the Sioux at Wabasha's village. Fifty warriors 
with their faces painted black and with black streaks 
on their blankets visited the "0. H. Perry", but 
refused to shake hands. Apprehensive of danger 
on the return journey. Colonel Snelling furnished 
the crews with guns and cartridges before the de- 
scent was commenced.^^ 

There soon arrived at Fort Snelling a letter from 
John Marsh, the sub-agent at Prairie du Chien. It 
stated that rumors were current that Prairie du 
Chien was to be attacked and that the Sioux and 
Winnebagoes threatened to kill Taliaferro ' ' and any 
American that they can find at a distance from the 
Fort". The letter closed with the request that steps 
be taken for the defense of Prairie du Chien.®- No 
doubt preparations were commenced immediately; 
but they were hastened by news which soon came up 
the river. On June 26th the Winnebago chief, Red 
Bird, with three of his men had attacked a farm 
house near Prairie du Chien and obtained the scalp 
of a child. Returning to their village, they had seen 



34 OLD FORT SNELLING 

the keel boats coming down the river. With their 
fighting blood up they attacked the ''0. H. Perry", 
and in a battle which lasted several hours they killed 
two of the crew and lost seven of their own warriors. 
The report of this attack, together w^ith the murder 
near Prairie du Chien, spread consternation among 
the white men.^-^ 

Without delay Colonel Snelling with four com- 
panies started down the river.®* A few days after 
reaching Prairie du Chien, he was reenforced by 
troops brought up from St. Louis by Colonel Atkin- 
son. It was thought necessary that Fort Snelling 
should be maintained during the critical period, and 
as it was short of provisions, Colonel Snelling was 
ordered back to his post w^ith a supply of flour, and 
directed to procure boats which could be used in the 
pursuit of the Winnebagoes up the Wisconsin River. 
On the 16tli of August Colonel Snelling arrived at 
his post, and on the following day Major Fowle 
started do^\mstream Avith four other companies of 
the Fifth Infantry in two keel boats and nine mack- 
inac boats, arriving at Fort Crawford on August 
21st. The Indians, overawed by the rapidity of 
these military movements and the size of the force 
sent against them, immediately became peaceable. 
As a precaution, however. Major Fowle was kept at 
Fort Crawford, and the post was provisioned for a 
year."^ 

During the next twenty years the force maintained 
at Fort Snelling was small, and the garrison was 
occupied in routine tasks, the regulation of Indian 



FORTY YEARS OF FRONTIER DUTY 35 

affairs, and the fur trade. At the time of the Black 
Hawk War there was quiet about Fort Snelling, and 
Major Taliaferro offered liis services and those of 
the Sioux warriors in the campaign against the Sacs 
and Foxes. But the government did not think it 
advisable to formally accept the proffered help, al- 
though a number of the Sioux did take part in pur- 
suing the remnants of Sacs who succeeded in cross- 
ing the river.^*' 

In June, 1848, the company of infantry stationed 
at Fort Snelling received an urgent call to come to 
Wabasha 's Prairie — near Winona, Minnesota. The 
Winnebago Indians were being transferred from 
their former home in the Turkey Valley region in 
Iowa to a new reservation obtained for them from 
the Chippewas. But when the Prairie was reached, 
the Winnebagoes visited with Wabasha and he sold 
it to them for a home. When Captain Seth Eastman 
arrived from Fort Snelling he was put in charge of 
the military forces which had been hastily brought 
together to force the Winnebagoes to continue their 
march. There were volunteers from Crawford 
County, Wisconsin, dragoons from Fort Atkinson, 
Iowa, and the infantry from Fort Snelling, besides 
sixty armed teamsters. 

These military forces lay encamped, separated 
from the Indians by a slough. In the morning a 
deputation of Indians came to ask the meaning of 
the martial appearance of the whites when all they 
desired was a council. This suggestion of a council 
was quickly assented to, but the Indians approached 



36 OLD FORT SNELLING 

with such a rush and with such blood-curdhng yells 
that the cannon were loaded and the soldiers stood 
ready to fire. During the council the Winnebagoes 
refused to move until one small band gave in to the 
entreaties of the agent and were taken up to Fort 
Snelling. This was an opening w^edge, for when the 
steamboat returned 1700 were ready to move. The 
total journey of three hundred and ten miles from 
the old to the new home occupied the time from June 
8th to July 30th, 1848.^^ 

By the next summer they were ready to return — 
anywhere, but especially to Wisconsin, their earliest 
home."^ In July the whole tribe, stimulated by 
whiskey, started; but Governor Ramsey called on 
Colonel Loomis of Fort Snelling for aid, and a force 
under Captain Monroe proceeded to the north where 
their presence aided in quieting the disturbers. 
Again, on September 9th about a hundred had ap- 
proached within sixteen miles of St. Paul, when Cap- 
tain Page and forty men from Fort Snelling fright- 
ened them so much that they fled into the swarhps 
and returned home quietly. Smaller parties were 
captured on the river and sent back under a military 
guard.^^ Not all the efforts, how^ever, were success- 
ful. It was reported that one evening in November 
over a hundred red men floated down quietly under 
the very guns of Fort Snelling, and two weeks later 
the newspaper accounts tell of three hundred Winne- 
bagoes in camp near the mouth of the Black River.^"" 
The need for a company of dragoons at Fort Snell- 
ing was imperative. The next summer it was ol)- 



FORTY YEARS OF FRONTIER DUTY 37 

tained, and in 1851 this military force was described 
as being '^an indispensable and invaluable auxil- 
iary. "^°' Not until 1855 was the Winnebago spirit 
of migration broken, and then only after a new res- 
ervation had been obtained for them at the mouth 
of the Blue Earth River."- 

In his report of November 25, 1844, the Commis- 
sioner of Indian Affairs called attention to the fact 
that no longer was there any need of entertaining- 
fears on account of the visits made by American 
Indians to the Canadian posts, as these pilgrimages 
were indulged in only by a few "worthless va- 
grants''. But an evil of a different character was 
imminent. Twice a year hundreds of Red River 
half-breeds — hois hrules — left their homes on the 
British side of the international boundary to hunt 
buffalo on the American plains which bordered on 
the Missouri River. Here they came into contact 
with Indians who naturally resented this intrusion 
upon their hunting grounds. During the summer of 
1844 a half-breed had been killed by a party of Yank- 
ton Sioux, and the invaders had retaliated by killing- 
eight Sioux of another band. This so inflamed the 
Indians that they went upon the war path and with- 
out stopping to reason about the matter, they at- 
tacked a party of whites whom they met on Otter 
Tail Lake."' 

To hunt the buffalo freely, even on foreign soil, 
seemed to the hois hrules to be their natural right. 
On the pemmican which they made from these buf- 
faloes they depended for their winter's food. Five 



38 OLD FORT SNELLING 

hundred and forty carts trailed out of Pembina on 
the summer hunt of 1820, and from year to year the 
number increased until in 1840 there were 1210 carts, 
accompanied by 1630 people. Nowhere else in the 
new world at least, was there such a hunting party. 
Thirteen hundred and seventy-five buffalo tongues 
were counted as the result of one day's hunt in 
1840.^°* It was estimated that every year these Red 
River hunters killed twenty thousand buffaloes on 
American soil.^°^ 

In this there was a real grievance. Though small 
in itself the incident could easily develop into a war 
when there were other factors urging in the same 
direction."" The exact condition of affairs on the 
border was so confused that the United States made 
occasional military displays in order to impress the 
invaders and also to satisfy its own curiosity. The 
first of these expeditions occurred in 1845. Captain 
Edwin V. Sumner, then in command at Fort Atkin- 
son, in the Iowa country, visited the Red River of 
the North during the summer of that year with Com- 
panies B and I of the First Regiment of Dragoons. 
But the difficulty was that while the invaders would 
promise to remain off American soil and would retire 
as soon as a military force appeared, yet no sooner 
would the troops depart than they would be back 
again on the hunting grounds.'"^ 

When complaints continued to come in the Adju- 
tant General proposed to establish a post on the Red 
River. As a preliminary movement Brevet Major 
Samuel Woods, Captain of the Sixth Infantry lo- 



FORTY YEARS OF FRONTIER DUTY 39 

cated at Fort Snelling, was ordered to proceed with 
Company D of the dragoons to the border and make 
recommendations to the AVar Department in regard 
to a suitable site. On Jnne 6, 1849, the start was 
made from Fort Snelling, and the weary march 
directed to the northwest over the swollen rivers and 
the marshy swamps with the mosquitoes a constant 
torment, until on August 1st the soldiers reached the 
collection of Indian lodges and the trading establish- 
ment that was known as Pembina. During the 
twenty-five days spent at this point observations 
were made of the topographical features of the land, 
the character of the Indians, and the pursuits of the 
half-breeds. 

Major Woods urged the American Indians and 
half-breeds to prevent by force the invasions, prom- 
ising that the United States would support them. 
But it would be useless, he reported, to build a fort 
at Pembina unless at least two hundred fifty men 
were stationed there. It would be better to concen- 
trate a large force at Fort Snelling, from whence 
expeditions could be made into the Indian country 
in all directions as necessity might arise. The re- 
turn to the fort occupied twenty-three and a half 
days, and on September 18th the total journey of 
almost a thousand miles was completed with the loss 
of only one horse and one mule."^ 

During the next few years conditions remained 
unchanged, and as the settlement of the Minnesota 
and Mississippi valleys was pushing the Indian 
tribes farther to the westward, more and bitter con- 



40 OLD FORT SNELLIXG 

flicts with the half-breeds would be liable to occur. 
In order to give a final warning to the foreign hunt- 
ers and to select a site for a post which could serve 
the double purpose of protecting the frontier settle- 
ments from the Indians and the Indians from the 
foreigners, Lieutenant Colonel C, F. Smith of the 
Tenth Infantry was ordered on June 9, 1856, to tour 
the region with Companies B and F, As far as the 
Goose River, in the North Dakota country, the route 
followed from Fort Snelling was practically the 
same as that of Major Woods; but instead of pro- 
ceeding by the usual route northward to Pembina, 
a detour was made to Lake Mini- Waken (Devil's 
Lake). On the return the less travelled and more 
difficult road on the east side of the Red River was 
followed. 

On August 19th the trail of the annual hunting 
party was crossed; but the nine hundred men, 
women, and children who had made the trip had 
returned to their homes three weeks before, and kept 
away from the military party. Since no warning 
could be given to them in person, a notice written in 
both English and French was circulated in Pembina 
and in the Britisli settlements to the north. But the 
natives obtained sweet revenge when Colonel Smith 
attempted to buy from the farmers in the vicinity of 
the principal trading post — Fort Garry — a suffi- 
cient supply of oats for his troops. The half-breeds 
declined to bring the grain, giving as their excuse 
that they did not desire to trespass on American soil 
when warned to keep off.^°^ 



FORTY YEARS OF FRONTIER DUTY 41 

Not only to the north did the troops from Fort 
Snelling make expeditions. The wide range of its 
influence is illustrated by the task which occupied 
the attention of its soldiers during the summer of 
1850. On August 8, 1849, Governor Ansel Briggs of 
Iowa forwarded to the Secretary of War a petition, 
signed by over a hundred citizens of Iowa County, 
in which they complained of the presence of a great 
number of Indians who were destroying the timber, 
removing the section corners, and even demanding 
rent from some of the settlers — claiming that they 
owned the land on the Iowa River.^^" 

To investigate conditions and to report upon what 
steps w^ould be necessary to remove the cause of 
complaint, Brevet Major Samuel Woods, stationed 
at Fort Snelling, was ordered to proceed to the State 
of Iowa. On the twenty-fifth of September he left 
for Prairie du Chien, and arriving here set out for 
Fort Atkinson, thinking that probably the Winne- 
bagoes were the Indians causing the trouble. But 
he discovered that many of them had just set out for 
the upper Mississippi, and those remaining behind 
were so few- in number that they could cause little 
inconvenience to the frontier. From Fort Atkinson 
Major Woods passed southward through Fayette, 
Buchanan, Linn, and Johnson counties to Iowa City. 
At this time the region traversed was sparsely set- 
tled. For a hundred miles south of Fort Atkinson 
there were only two settlements — one, consisting of 
a few families, high upon the Volga River, and the 
other larger in numbers clustered about some mills 



42 OLD FORT SMELLING 

on the Wapsipinicon River. About fifteen miles 
north of Marion the inhabitants became more numer- 
ous. Here were found Indians — Sacs and Foxes, 
Pottawattomies, and Winnebagoes — but they were 
not hostile and their presence caused no objection. 

It was at Iowa City that Major Woods heard that 
the inhabitants on the Iowa, English, and Skunk 
Rivers had been making the loudest complaints. 
Accordingly he started up the Iowa River to the 
vicinity of Marengo. Here he learned that a few 
days before the settlers near the town, becoming- 
tired of having Indians about them, armed them- 
selves and by force broke up the Indian encampment. 
Only one lodge remained, that on the lands of a 
farmer who gave permission to three of the red men 
to live under his protection. 

The total number of Indians, Major Woods re- 
ported, consisted of five or six hundred Sacs and 
Foxes, Pottawattomies, and Winnebagoes. Among 
these the Sacs and Foxes were the most numerous. 
They had by treaty sold their lands some years ear- 
lier and had been removed to the Missouri River; 
but they preferred their old home, and so had re- 
turned in straggling bands, sometimes going back 
to the Missouri to get their annuities. The Winne- 
bagoes were those who had escaped when the tribe 
was being transferred to the new reservation north 
of Fort Snelling. 

The complaints against these Indians were that 
they destroyed a great deal of timber, removed the 
surveyors' landmarks, killed the game, annoyed the 



FORTY YEARS OF FRONTIER DUTY 43 

settlers, and that when intoxicated tliey were an 
actual source of danger. Believing that these rea- 
sons were well founded, Major Woods advised that 
the Indians be removed as soon as possible. Condi- 
tions did not demand a winter campaign, but prep- 
arations should be made for the removal during the 
early summer.^ ^^ 

In the earlj^ part of April of the next year it was 
known that two companies of infantry from Fort 
Snelling, and one company of dragoons from Port 
Gaines had been detailed for this task."" On the 
twelfth of May the ''Highland Mary" left Fort 
Snelling, having on board the infantry and cavalry 
and part of the equipment, while in tow^ was a barge 
full of horses and mules."" The soldiers were dis- 
embarked at Dubuque, whence they followed the trail 
to Iowa City, along which they ' ' saw nothing except 
the ravages of California emigration." Proceeding 
to the vicinity of Marengo, a council was held with 
the Indians. But the latter marched into the council 
ten abreast carrying their war clubs and manifesting 
such a hostile disposition that it was impossible for 
Major Woods to accomplish anything.^^* 

For a while it seemed that active military opera- 
tions would be necessary. The Indians becoming 
convinced that this would be the result, and fearing 
that all the expenses of the campaign would be de- 
ducted from the annuities of the tribe, suggested to 
two men of the neighborhood — a Mr. Steen and a 
Mr. Greenly — that they would go back to their 
homes if these two men could be appointed their 



44 OLD FORT SNELLING 

guides. When Mr. Steen and Mr. Greenly broached 
the subject to Major Woods he considered it thought- 
fully, and finally an arrangement was made. For 
every Indian who left the Iowa River and was turned 
over to their agent west of the Missouri River, the 
government was to pay three dollars and fifty cents. 
Five hundred dollars was to be advanced to pay for 
the provisions of the party. Upon June 6th a sec- 
ond council was held with the Indians, during which 
Major Woods impressed upon Chief Poweshiek and 
his men the necessity of their returning and the ad- 
visability of their doing it peaceably."^ 

During the month of July the Indians started upon 
their journey. For several days they encamped 
near Fort Des Moines, and on July 16th seventy of 
the warriors, armed and painted, paraded on horse- 
back through the streets of the town to the public 
square where for an hour they danced for the amuse- 
ment of the two or three hundred interested spec- 
tators in the frontier town."'"' 

These events made necessary a change in the plans 
of the troops. Company E of the Sixth Infantry 
remained at their camp on the Iowa River for some 
time, but upon the last day of July set out under the 
command of Major Woods for a site on the Des 
Moines River which had been chosen by the War 
Department as the location of a new military post. 
On August 23, 1850, the troops arrived at the desig- 
nated place and began the erection of a fort which 
they named Fort Clarke in honor of Colonel Clarke 



FORTY YEARS OF FRONTIER DUTY 45 

the commanding officer of the Sixth Infantry. The 
name, however, was soon changed to Fort Dodge. 

The company of dragoons was occupied during 
August and September in making a tour of the west- 
ern part of the State of Iowa, and it was not until 
October that the cavalry company and the other in- 
fantry company returned to their station at Fort 
Snelling,^^'' 

Occupation for the company of dragoons was fur- 
nished during the next summer when Governor Ram- 
sey was sent to Pembina to draw up a treaty with 
the Pillager band of Chippewa Indians. On August 
18, 1851, the party set out from Fort Snelling. Be- 
sides the Governor and a number of gentlemen who 
accompanied him, the party consisted of twenty-five 
dragoons, and eight French-Canadian and half-breed 
drivers who had charge of six baggage wagons and 
several light Red River carts. The march was very 
difficult and the dragoons were kept busy repairing 
the roads over the swamp lands and dragging with 
ropes the heavy wagons over the quickly made cause- 
ways. The treaty which was made after this diffi- 
cult journey was not ratified by the Senate. ^^® 

The wonderful expansion of the Nation, which 
occurred in the latter half of the fifth decade of the 
century, turned all eyes toward the fertile valleys 
and the mountains of fabulous wealth on the Pacific 
Coast. Even before the acquisition of this territory 
some visionary minds had pictured it bound to the 
United States, if not by political ties, at least by 



46 OLD FORT SNELLING 

bonds of steel.^'*' The Oregon treaty of 1846 brought 
part of the coveted land under the jurisdiction of the 
United States, and the necessity of a railroad to the 
Pacific was soon realized. But sectional interests 
prevented agreement upon any certain route, and 
it was decided to survey the most promising and 
choose the one agreed upon by the engineers. Ac- 
cordingly, the army appropriation bill of 1853 pro- 
vided $150,000 for this purpose.^'" 

Isaac I. Stevens, the newly appointed Governor 
of Washington Territory, led the party which exam- 
ined the country between the parallels of forty-seven 
and forty-nine degrees north latitude — called the 
Northern Pacific Survey. He left Washington, 
D. C, on May 9, 1853, and reached St. Paul on May 
27th. According to his instructions he was author- 
ized to call upon one sergeant, two corporals, one 
musician, and sixteen privates of Company D First 
Dragoons, who were still stationed at Fort Snell- 
ing.^^^ Captain Gardiner, who had preceded his lead- 
er up the river, had selected the escort and collected 
the party on May 24th in Camp Pierce — a temporary 
encampment located three miles northwest of the 
fort.^" Early in June camp was broken and the 
start for the far West was made, at first, over the 
Red River Trail, and then across the prairies to Fort 
Union, where on August 1st they were joined by 
others who had been sent up the Missouri with sup- 
plies. Fort Benton was reached on September 1st. 
There they remained until the twelfth of the month 
when Lieutenant Saxton, leading a similar party 



FORTY YEARS OF FRONTIER DUTY 47 



eastward from Vancouver, arrived. Thus a survey 
from the Mississippi to the Pacific had been com- 
pleted.'^^ 

On the journey the entire party had been divided 
into small groups, who conducted surveys and ex- 
plorations in various directions. To each of these 
groups were detailed a few of the dragoons, who 
were in all respects an integral part of the expedi- 
tion and not merely a guard for protection. Accord- 
ingly, no special mention of their work was made in 
the report/^* 

After thirty years, the distinction of being the 
most northwestern post in the upper Mississippi 
region was lost by Fort Snelling. Other military 
stations were erected, and thereafter many of its 
former activities were conducted from these stations 
on the extreme frontier. Yet in everything contrib- 
uted by these newer posts, the older had a part ; ac- 
counts of them reveal their dependence on Fort 
Snelling, the parent post. 

As early as 1844 the Secretary of War had re- 
ported that plans were being made to erect two new 
forts between Lake Superior and the Eiver St. 
Peter 's.'^^ But nothing was done at this time. By 
a treaty of October 13, 1846, the Winnebagoes living 
on the "Neutral Ground" in the Turkey Eiver Val- 
ley of the Iowa country agreed to exchange this 
reservation for one "north of St. Peter's and west 
of the Mississippi Eivers ".'-''' By treaties in the fol- 
lowing August, the Chippewas ceded to the govern- 
ment a tract lying south of the Grow Wing Eiver 



48 OLD FORT SNELLING 

and west of the Mississippi River, and north and 
east of the so-called Sioux-Chippewa boundary 
line/" This was the area agreed on by the govern- 
ment as being suitable for the Winnebagoes. In 
view of the reputation of unruliness possessed by 
this tribe, and the fact that they were to be placed 
between the warring tribes — the Sioux and the 
Chippewas — the establishment of a post on the res- 
ervation was thought desirable. 

The transfer of the tribe took place during the 
summer of 1848 ; and in the same fall Brigadier Gen- 
eral George M. Brooke of St. Louis, accompanied by 
a squadron of dragoons, chose a point opposite the 
Nokay River as a desirable location. ^^^ This com- 
pany and a company of the Sixth Infantry from 
Fort Snelling were employed in building the fort, 
and when cold weather prevented further opera- 
tions, they were withdrawn to Fort Snelling, where 
the winter was passed.^-^ In the spring the troops 
returned, and Fort Gaines — rechristened Fort Rip- 
ley — was occupied on the thirteenth of April, 1849.^'^ 

But this post alone was unable to keep the Winne- 
bagoes in check. They celebrated the first fourth of 
July by attacking a frontier store and ' * causing one 
gentleman to escape en dishahille to the woods, 
where he danced to the tune of the mosquitoes dur- 
ing some three days and nights. "^^^ Again and 
again reports of riotous revels and rumors of im- 
pending outbreaks caused help to be sent from Fort 
Snelling to assist the troops higher up the river.^^^ 
In the spring of 1857 the fort was abandoned, but 



FORTY YEARS OF FRONTIER DUTY 49 

Indian disturbances during the summer caused a 
detachment to be sent from the older post. These 
troops remained at that point until in the summer of 
1858 they were transferred to the newly founded 
Fort Abercrombie.^^^ 

The treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota, 
concluded in 1851, concentrated the Sioux Indians 
on a long irregular reservation along the upper Min- 
nesota River/'^* The Indians were not transferred 
until the summer of 1853, but in the fall of the previ- 
ous year the need of a post among so many half 
civilized people, placed in a small territory, was 
obvious. Accordingly, Colonel Francis Lee, com- 
mandant at Fort Snelling, and Captain Dana of the 
quartermaster's department, escorted by a troop of 
dragoons, selected a suitable site on the north side 
of the Minnesota River, a dozen miles upstream from 
the town of New Ulm. 

On February 24, 1853, seven privates of Company 
D of the First Dragoons, and two sergeants and thir- 
teen privates of the Sixth Infantry were sent to the 
location to begin the erection of the fort. In April 
the dragoons were ordered to return to Fort Snelling 
and Companies C and K of the Sixth Infantry went 
up the river under the command of Captain James 
Monroe and became part of the permanent garrison 
of newly-founded Fort Ridgely. One other com- 
pany came up from Fort Dodge — the post in Iowa 
which was abandoned with this withdrawal. ^^^ 

Colonel C. F. Smith, who led the expedition from 
Fort Snelling to the Red River during the summer 



50 OLD FORT SNELLING 

of 1856, was instructed to recommend a site for a 
post. His choice of Graham's Point on the Red 
River was accepted; and here, in the fall of 1857, 
Colonel John J. Abercrombie constructed the fort 
which was named in his honor. Colonel Smith, writ- 
ing from Fort Snelling, gave among his reasons for 
the choice of Graham's Point "the additional ad- 
vantage of greater facility for receiving stores from 
the depot here".^"° 

With the building of these posts. Fort Snelling 
lost much of its importance. The garrison was 
small and the fort was almost nothing more than 
a depot for supplying the more advanced forts with 
food, clothing, and ammunition. ^'^^ With the decline 
of its military position, the idea became prevalent 
that some day it would be abandoned entirely, and 
the land thrown open to settlement. 

The neighboring cities of St. Paul, Minneapolis, 
and St. Anthony were in the throes of real estate 
speculation. There were some who saw in Fort 
Snelling a site more advantageous than any of these. 
"It is a position which has attracted also a good 
deal of attention on account of its superior beauty 
of location, its agricultural advantages, and its more 
notable advantages for a town site", said Mr. Mor- 
rill during a debate on the floor of the House of Rep- 
resentatives. "Wliatever witnesses in this case may 
have differed upon as to other matters, they nearly 
all agree that, as a point for a town site, it possesses 
superior advantages over any other in that part of 
the countrv. "^^® 



FORTY YEARS OF FRONTIER DUTY 51 

Successful efforts were made to secure this site. 
On June 6, 1857, Mr. William King Heiskell, a com- 
missioner appointed by the Secretary of War, sold 
to Mr. Franklin Steele, who was acting for himself 
and three others, the entire reservation for $90,000. 
The President approved the act on the second of 
July. Other parties who were interested in securing 
the site were not aware that the sale was to be made 
until everything had been accomplished.^^^ 

Immediately there arose the cry of graft: the 
Republicans saw in the transaction the corruption 
of the existing Democratic regime. A committee 
was appointed by the House of Representatives to 
investigate the matter, and the testimony which they 
took covers three hundred and seven pages. Some 
witnesses said that the post should have been re- 
tained for military purposes; others insisted that 
there was no such need. Some said that the site was 
admirable for a city ; a few stated that it possessed 
no such advantages. Some said that it was neces- 
sary as a supply station for the upper posts ; others 
insisted that these posts could be supplied more 
cheaply by a direct route."" 

Bitter debates marked the consideration of the 
report. The objects, character, and ability of the 
witnesses were questioned. One member of the 
House said that "Fort Snelling is a very elegant 
appanage to very elegant gentlemen, who have a 
very elegant place for parade and show.""^ An- 
other remarked that 'Hhe officers at Fort Snelling 
were opposed to the sale and it was natural that 



52 OLD FORT SNELLING 

they should be. They had a beautiful place of resi- 
dence, they had the most comfortable quarters, and 
a superabundance of stores for their subsistence. 
There they were living upon the fat of the land, with- 
out anything under God's heaven to do. Society 
was near at hand in a city populous, and furnishing 
all the luxuries of life. They of course did not want 
to surrender such quarters and such comforts for 
the hardships and trials of a frontier station. ' ' ^*^ 

Finally, on June second the whole matter was laid 
on the table. On May 27, 1858, the troops had been 
withdrawn,"^ and on July 19, 1858, the quartermas- 
ter turned the buildings over to Mr. Steele. But 
with the opening of the Civil War Fort Snelling was 
used by the government as a training station, and 
after the war it was continued as a permanent post. 
Mr. Steele had been unable to pay the entire $90,000, 
and as he claimed rent at the rate of $2000 a month 
for the time it had been used by the government, the 
matter was again taken up. It was finally adjusted 
in an agreement whereby Mr. Steele retained the 
greater part of the land, and the government kept 
the buildings and 1521.20 acres surrounding the 
fort. Later some of the land was re-purchased 
from Mr. Steele."* 

The history of Old Fort Snelling closes with the 
removal of the troops in 1858. The story of its use 
during the Civil War, of the part it played during 
the Sioux massacre of 1862, of its influence through- 
out the West during the years when the headquar- 
ters of the Department of Dakota were located within 



FORTY YEARS OF FRONTIER DUTY 53 

its walls, of the Officers' Training Camp established 
during the summer of 1917, lies outside the scope of 
this volume. The life of the new Fort Snelling re- 
vives the traditions of patriotism, loyalty, and sacri- 
fice, which have centered about the post since that 
day in August, 1819, which witnessed its beginning. 



IV 

LORDS OF THE NORTH 

An old settler, speaking of the expulsion of the 
squatters on the military reservation remarked: 
''At that time, and both before and since, the com- 
manding officers of the fort were the lords of the 
north. They ruled supreme. The citizens in the 
neighborhood of the fort were liable at any time to 
be thrust into the guard-house. While the chief of 
the fort was the king, the subordinate officers were 
the princes, and persons have been deprived of their 
liberty and imprisoned by those tyrants for the most 
trivial wrong, or some imaginary offense.""^ This 
statement is doubtless rather extreme; but the fact 
remains that the fort was the only agency of govern- 
ment in the region, and so the commanding officer 
was indeed the supreme ruler in so far as he directed 
the policy and activities of the post. 

Interest in Old Fort Snelling is not primarily in 
the logs and stones which made up its building, but 
in the men and women who lived within its walls. 
Many were the lives influenced by a residence in its 
barracks. Characters were formed by the stern 
rigors of frontier service. Far from busy cities, in 
the tiresome routine of army life, men were being 
trained who were to be leaders in the political and 

54 



LORDS OF THE NORTH 55 

military life of tlie Nation. Others never rose to a 
higher position; but they command attention be- 
cause in their faithful performance of daily duties, 
year after year, they were quietly helping to make 
the history of the Northwest. It is impossible to 
consider every man who might be classed among the 
''Lords of the North", but a review of the careers 
of a few of them indicates the type of men whose 
natural ability was supplemented by the self-con- 
fidence and the grim determination which are the 
products of frontier service. ^**^ 

The memory of the man who led the troops to the 
mouth of the Minnesota Eiver in 1819 is commem- 
orated by a fort and a city in another State. The 
trials which he endured during that first winter at 
Cantonment New Hope were only harbingers of 
greater difficulties which were to bring to him the 
death of a frontier martyr. Although he had been 
educated for the lawyer's profession, Henry Leaven- 
worth raised a company of volunteers in Delaware 
County, New York, in 1812, and was elected its cap- 
tain. He served under General Winfield Scott and 
won honors for distinguished service at the Battle of 
Chippewa and at Niagara Falls. After the war he 
continued in the army, being appointed lieutenant 
colonel of the Fifth United States Infantry on Feb- 
ruary 10, 1818. After conducting the troops up the 
Mississippi River in 1819 and remaining through the 
winter, he was superseded by Colonel Snelling. 

Expeditions and Indian duties occupied his atten- 



56 OLD FORT SNELLING 

tion during the next few years, and in May, 1827, he 
established ' ' Cantonment Leavenworth ' ' on the west 
bank of the Missouri River. On February 8, 1832, 
the name was changed to Fort Leavenworth, Dur- 
ing a campaign against the Pawnee Indians, who 
were harassing the caravans of the Santa Fe trad- 
ers. Colonel Leavenworth was taken sick with fever 
and died on July 21, 1834, in a hospital wagon at 
Cross Timbers in Indian Territory. The body was 
wrapped in spices and sent by way of St. Louis, New 
Orleans, and New York City, to Delhi, New York, 
where it remained until in 1902 it was reinterred in 
the national cemetery at Fort Leavenworth. A 
granite shaft some twelve feet high marks his rest- 
ing-place.^*^ 

The monument to the man under whose direction 
the fort was built is the modern military establish- 
ment named Fort Snelling. The erection of this 
fort was the last achievement of a life which, though 
comparatively brief, had already accomplished 
much. Josiah Snelling was born in Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, in 1782. His first commission was as a 
first lieutenant in the Fourth Infantry and bears the 
date of May 3, 1808. In the Battle of Tippecanoe 
on November 7, 1811, he commanded one of the com- 
panies that were attacked in their camp in the early 
morning. An attempt was made by a company of 
dragoons to drive off the groups of Indians whose 
fire was the heaviest, but the officer who was leading 
was wounded and the attempt failed. "The In- 



LORDS OF THE NORTH 57 

dians", reported General Harrison, "were, how- 
ever, immediately and gallantly dislodged from their 
advantageous position by Captain Snelling, at the 
head of his company. ' ' ^*^ During the War of 1812 
he served with Hull's army about Detroit, and when 
the fort was surrendered he was taken a prisoner 
and brought to Canada. But he was exchanged and 
ordered to Plattsburg, and later was sent to Fort 
Erie on the staff of General George Izard. At the 
close of the war he was retained as lieutenant col- 
onel of the Sixth Infantry and was stationed at 
Plattsburg for four years."^ 

Bravery and impetuosity were two of Colonel 
Snelling 's traits. During the campaign about De- 
troit he was married to Abigail Hunt by the chaplain 
of General Hull's army. The general and other of- 
ficers were present. An account of the life of his 
wife states that * * the ceremony had been performed 
but a few moments when the drum beat to arms ; and 
Capt. Snelling instantly started up to go in search 
of his sword. All rushed to the door except Gen. 
Hull, who laying his hand on the young officer's 
shoulder as he was about leaving the house, said, 
'Snelling, you need not go, I will excuse you.' 'By 
no means,' was the reply, 'I feel more like doing my 
duty now than ever.' 'Stay, it is a false alarm by 
my order,' said the General. " ^^^ The ignoble sur- 
render of Detroit by General Hull was deplored by 
many of the men under him. The story is told that 
while General Hull's aid was trying to place the 
white flag in position he called, ' ' Snelling, come and 



58 OLD FORT SNELLING 

help me fix this flag." Whereupon that officer re- 
plied, ''No, sir; I will not soil my hands with that 
flag."^^^ 

On June 1, 1819, he was appointed colonel of the 
Fifth Infantry, and ordered to St. Louis, where the 
following winter was passed. In the summer he 
started up the Mississippi, but was detained at 
Prairie du Chien by a court-martial of which he was 
the president, and it was not until August that he 
reached the troops at Camp Cold Water. From that 
time until the fall of 1827 Colonel Snelling was in 
command of the post, when not absent on official 
business. Except when he had been drinking too 
much, he was a favorite with the troops, and as he 
had red hair and was somewhat bald, they nick- 
named him the " prairie-hen ".^■'^- 

In the fall of 1827 the Fifth Infantry was with- 
drawn from the post and was succeeded by the First 
Infantry. The Snelling family located at St. Louis, 
while Colonel Snelling proceeded to Washington to 
settle some accounts. Wliile here he was suddenly 
taken sick and died on August 20, 1828."^ 

The man whose name was applied to the post 
which has become so historic was a tj^jical soldier of 
his day. Along with the bravery and zeal of the 
army, he possessed also its failings. "Of myself I 
have little to say", he wrote on one occasion. "I 
entered the army a subaltern, almost eighteen years 
ago. From obscurity I have passed through every 
grade to the command of a regiment. I owe nothing 
to executive patronage, for I have neither friend or 



LORDS OF THE NORTH 59 

relation connected with the government : I have ob- 
tained my rank in the ordinary course of promotion, 
and have retained it by doing my duty ; and I really 
flatter myself that I still possess the confidence of 
the government, and the respect of those who serve 
with and under me. ' ' ^^* 

Daniel Webster, speaking in the Senate on July 9, 
1850, remarked that it was not in Indian wars that 
heroes were celebrated, but it was there that they 
were formed/^^ The occasion of this speech was the 
death of the President, Zachary Taylor, who had 
served for many years upon the Indian frontier. 
As lieutenant colonel of the First Infantry, he came 
to Fort Snelling during the summer of 1828 and 
remained there for a year, when he established his 
headquarters at Fort Crawford. His achievements 
on the frontier and in the Mexican War, which finally 
brought him to the presidency are a familiar story, 
and the training which he received in Old Fort Snell- 
ing was only a part of that which gave him the name 
of "Rough and Ready". It is. a remarkable fact 
that at Fort Snelling he was remembered less for his 
own actions than for those of his four pretty daugh- 
ters whose presence spread commotion in the hearts 
of the homesick young officers.^^® 

In 1837 the First Infantry was withdrawn and 
part of the Fifth Infantry returned to its former 
station. Among the familiar faces seen about the 
garrison again was that of a man whose eccentrici- 



60 OLD FORT SNELLING 

ties and personality are closely associated with the 
life of the fort.'" In reporting the casualties of the 
battle of Molino del Rey, September 8, 1847, the gen- 
eral commanding the American forces applied an 
adjective to only one of the dead. The report reads, 
''the service mourns the high-souled Scott, brevet 
lieutenant colonel 5th infantry".'^* This was Martin 
Scott, one of the most human, most lovable, and most 
energetic men who ever reviewed troops on the pa- 
rade ground of Old Fort Snelling. Only from July 
15, 1837, until August 20, 1837, was he in command, 
but for many years he was a familiar figure around 
the barracks and in the surrounding country. 

Hunting was his favorite pastime, and many a 
time the prairie rang with the yelping of the twenty 
or twenty-five dogs which he kept under the care of 
a special negro servant at the fort. His deadly aim 
was known to all. An army officer who insulted him 
was severely wounded in a duel ; he often played the 
part of William Tell by shooting with his pistol 
through an apple placed upon the head of his negro ; 
and if credence is to be given to the stories which 
are told, even the animals were aware that from him 
there was no escape. A coon sitting high on a tree 
was shot at by several hunters in succession, but 
still remained in its position. Captain Scott came 
along and took aim, whereupon the coon asked, 
''Who is that?" The reply was, "My name is 
Scott." "Scott? what Scott?" continued the coon. 
"Captain Martin Scott." "Are you Captain Mar- 
tin Scott?" There was a pause before the voice in 



LORDS OP THE NORTH 61 

the tree-top continued, "Then hold on — don't shoot; 
I may as well come down. ' ' ^^° 

Martin Scott was born in Bennington, Vermont, 
on January 17, 1788. His family was extremely 
poor, but because of his freedom from army vices — 
gambling and drinking — he was able in later years 
to do them many favors. His kindness was equalled 
only by his bravery. For gallant conduct during 
the Mexican War he received several promotions, 
and held a commission as lieutenant colonel when he 
met death leading his regiment in the battle of Mo- 
lino del Rey.'*^" 

A newspaper correspondent who went over the 
field of battle, saw a gray-headed soldier spreading 
the blanket over the corpse of a fallen comrade. "I 
rode up to him", wrote the reporter to his news- 
paper, ''and asked him whether that was an officer. 
He looked up, and every lineament of his face be- 
tokening the greatest grief, replied, 'you never asked 
a question sir, more easily answered, it is an officer.' 
I then asked him who he was. He again replied, 
'The best soldier of the 5th infantry, sir.' I then 
alighted from my horse and uncovering the face, 
found it was Col. Martin Scott. As I again covered 
the face, the soldier continued, without apparently 
addressing himself to any person in particular — 
' They have killed him — they will be paid for this — 
if it had only been me — I have served with him al- 
most four enlistments but what will his poor family 
say?' And as he concluded thus the tears coursed 
down his furrowed cheeks, and the swelling of his 



62 OLD FORT SNELLING 

bosom showed how deeply he was affected by the 
death of his veteran and gallant commander. ' ' ^"^^ 

When the Fifth Infantry was transferred in 1840 
there was a second home-coming at Fort Snelling in 
that it was succeeded by parts of the First Infantry 
which remained until the year 1848. Captain Seth 
Eastman was in command at four different times 
during this period, and it was through his eyes that 
we can see Old Fort Snelling as it was.^**' After his 
graduation from the Military Academy he was an 
assistant teacher of drawing at West Point. Fol- 
lowing this he served in the Florida War and on the 
frontier until 1850, when he was called to Washing- 
ton to illustrate the History, Condition, and Future 
Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States. 
Active service on the frontier and in the Civil War 
followed, and in 1866 he was breveted a brigadier 
general.^*'^ 

Mary Henderson Eastman, his wife, also com- 
mands attention. The intimate association of the 
fort with the surrounding Indians brought to her 
knowledge many incidents connected mth their life 
which she embodied in a volume published in 1849 
and entitled: Dahcotah: or, Life and Legends of 
the Sioux around Fort Snelling. In this volume 
Longfellow read of the Falls of Minnehaha, which 
he describes so picturesquely in Hiaivatha.^'''* Other 
literary work was done by Mrs. Eastman, one of her 
volumes being Aunt Phyllis 's Cabin, a reply to Mrs. 
Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cahin.^^^ 



LORDS OP THE NORTH 63 

Parts of the Sixth Infantry Avere garrisoned in 
Fort Snelling from 1848 to 1852, and beginning in 
1850 there was also a company of the First Dragoons 
who engaged in many of the expeditions narrated in 
the preceding chapter. Among the officers who com- 
manded during this period was Lieutenant William 
T. Magruder, who was killed on July 3, 1863, at the 
Battle of Gettysburg while serving in the ranks of 
the Confederate army."'' One company of the Third 
Artillery was located at the post from 1853 to 1856. 
At the head of this company was Captain W.i^^T^ 
Sherman who, after serving in the Indian wars and 
the Mexican War, rose to prominence in the Civil 
War during which he was brevetted a major general. 
After the Civil War he was appointed commander of 
the Department of the East."^ 

Among the last troops which occupied Fort Snell- 
ing before it was abandoned in 1858 was a part of 
the Tenth Infantry. Major E. E. S. Canby of this 
regiment was in command of the fort during the 
summer and autumn of 1856. His was a wonderful 
record of achievement upon the frontier and in the 
Civil War, and like Colonel Leavenworth he met his 
death in service. Born in Kentucky the year that 
Fort Snelling was founded, he moved to Indiana as 
a boy. He was appointed to the Military Academy 
at West Point in 1835 and graduated in 1839. For 
the next three years he was engaged as a second 
lieutenant in the Second Infantry in the Florida 
War, and upon the successful termination of the 
campaigns he was employed in removing the Chero- 



64 OLD FORT SNELLING 

kees, Choctaws, and Creeks to Indian Territory. 
After a few years in garrison duty and the recruit- 
ing service he participated in the Mexican War, 
being promoted "for gallant and meritorious ser- 
vice ' ' at Contreras, Cherubusco, and the Belen Gate 
of the City of Mexico. On March 3, 1855, a promo- 
tion made him major in the Tenth Infantry; and it 
was while holding this position that he served at 
Fort Snelling. 

In 1858 Major Canby was transferred to Fort 
Bridger, Utah, where he commanded an expedition 
against the Navajo Indians. While stationed at 
Fort Defiance, New Mexico, during the early years 
of the Civil War, he repelled the Confederate gen- 
eral, Sibley, who left one-half of his force behind 
him in killed, wounded, and prisoners. On March 
31, 1862, he was made a brigadier general of volun- 
teers and summoned to Washing-ton to assist Secre- 
tary of War Stanton. While here General Canby 
was called upon to take charge of a difficult position. 
Draft riots in New York City from July 13th to July 
16th resulted in the killing and wounding of about a 
thousand people and the destruction of about one 
and a half million dollars worth of property."® On 
July 17th General Canby was put in charge of the 
Federal troops in the city, and he was later able to 
enforce the provisions of the draft without difficul- 
ties."" Following this came an appointment as com- 
mander of the military division of West Mississippi, 
where he was wounded by Confederate guerrillas. 

At the close of the war, Edward Canby, then a 



LORDS OF THE NORTH 65 

major general of volunteers was sent to the far West 
as commander of the Department of the Columbia. 
Here the United States was engaged in a war with 
the Modoc Indians led by their chief ''Captain 
Jack". On April 11, 1873, General Canby held a 
peace parley with the Indians. It had been agreed 
that both parties should be unarmed, but in the 
middle of the negotiations ''Captain Jack" suddenly 
drew a revolver from his breast, and shot Canby 
through the head killing him instantly.^^° 

Other officers at the post who had real power were 
the garrison physicians. One of these, Dr. John 
Emerson was a giant in body and impulsive in spirit. 
On a certain day in early winter when the quarter- 
master was distributing stoves to the officers. Dr. 
Emerson asked for one for his negro servant. This 
the quartermaster refused, saying that there were 
not enough in store; whereupon the doctor insinu- 
ated that the statement was a lie. Upon being in- 
sulted thus the quartermaster struck his companion 
between the eyes. Emerson turned on his heels im- 
mediately, but he returned in a few minutes with a 
brace of pistols which he pointed at his assailant. 
The fighting spirit of the quartermaster fell at the 
appearance of these weapons, and he started across 
the parade ground on a run followed by the doctor. 
A third character appeared in the person of Major 
Plympton, the commanding officer, who arrested Dr. 
Emerson. This episode gave rise to a great commo- 
tion in the garrison. One group who wanted some 



66 OLD FORT SXELLING 

excitement urged that only in blood could the quarrel 
be settled; while the other group sought for peace, 
knowing that there was no other physician nearer 
than Prairie du Chien, Not for several days was 
the quarrel patched up, and then the terms were 
never made public.^'^ 

The cause of all this trouble was Dred Scott, man 
of color, and the slave of Dr. Emerson. He had been 
brought to Fort Snelling by his master in 1836, and 
here he was married to Harriet, also colored, who 
had been sold by Major Taliaferro to the doctor. 
When Dr. Emerson was transferred to Missouri, he 
took Dred Scott with him. After the death of his 
master, Scott began proceedings in the courts for 
his freedom on the ground that his residence at the 
military post made him free — Fort Snelling being 
located on soil where slavery was prohibited by the 
Missouri Compromise of 1820. Mrs. Emerson, who 
wanted to avoid an appearance in the courts, made 
over the control of Scott to John F. A. Sanford, and 
the case was finally brought to the Supreme Court 
of the United States. Thus Old Fort Snelling was 
connected with the case of Scott vs. Sanford, which 
was so important among the events leading up to the 
Civil War."^ 

Were battles and military operations alone con- 
sidered, the annals of Fort Snelling would comprise 
few pages; and were only military men characterized 
one of the most potent factors in the life of the fort 
would be omitted. The influence of the fort on the 



LORDS OF THE NORTH 67 

Indians was felt more through the quiet daily work 
of the Indian agent who was their official friend. 
Although he was an officer entirely distinct from the 
military organization at the fort, his work may legit- 
imately be accredited among the other activities of 
the post. He was, in fact, an army official. The act 
of August 7, 1789, which organized the War Depart- 
ment, placed Indian affairs in the hands of the Sec- 
retary ; ^" on July 9, 1832, a commissioner of Indian 
affairs was authorized ; ^^"^ and on June 30, 1834, the 
relations of the Indian agents to the military depart- 
ment were more clearly defined. The Superintend- 
ent of Indian Affairs, the Indian agents, and the sub- 
agents were given the right to call upon the military 
forces to remove all trespassers in the Indian coun- 
try, to procure the arrest and trial of all Indians 
accused of committing any crime, and to break up 
any distillery set up in the Indian country."^ 

By the act of March 3, 1849, the Department of 
the Interior was organized. Section Five of the act 
stipulated that **the Secretary of the Interior shall 
exercise the supervisory and appellate powers now 
exercised by the Secretary of the War Department, 
in relation to all the acts of the Commissioner of 
Indian Affairs"."" On the whole this law did not 
disturb the cooperation between the two branches of 
the government service, although the commander at 
Fort Snelling intimated to the agent that his priv- 
ileges were "not of right but by courtesy"."^ 

One name more than any other is associated with 
the agency at Fort Snelling — usually called the 



68 OLD FORT SNELLING 

agency of St. Peter's. From 1820 to 1840 regiments 
came and went, and the officers who ruled as "Lords 
of the North" were soon transferred to other posts. 
The military establishment was itself known by sev- 
eral different names in succession, but the Indian 
agent remained the same — Lawrence Taliaferro. 
His was a lasting influence — lasting because of the 
position he held in the memories of his wards and 
his associates, and lasting because of the records 
that he left. 

To the Indians he was a real "Father". Amer- 
icans, Scotch, Sioux, and French could all find mthin 
his breast, they said, a kindred spirit, and they be- 
stowed upon him the name of "Four Hearts" be- 
cause of the impartiality of his actions to all nation- 
alities.^^® In June, 1858, a number of Sioux chiefs 
were in Washington and came to see him. ' ' My old 
Father," said Little Crow, "we have called upon 
you; we love you; we respect you. . . . Since 
you left us a dark cloud has hung over our nation. 
We have lost confidence in the promises of our Great 
Father, and his people; bad men have nearly de- 
stroyed us. . . . We failed to get a friend in 
anyone like you; they all joined the traders. We 
know your heart, it feels for your old children. ' ' ^^^ 

Those who were associated with him at the fort 
also had kind words for him. "He belonged to a 
class more common then than now", remarked the 
son of Colonel Bliss. "He imagined it to be his im- 
perative duty to see that every Indian under his 
charge had the enjoyment of all his rights, and never 



LORDS OF THE NORTH 69 

seemed to realize his opportunities for arranging 
with contractors for the supply of inferior goods and 
for dividing the profits. ' ' ^^° Of this honesty Talia- 
ferro wrote: '*I have the Sad Consolation of leav- 
ing after twenty Seven years — the public Service as 
poor as when first I entered — The only evidence of 
my integrity "/^^ 

No one can write of Fort Snelling without using 
the papers which Lawrence Taliaferro left. The 
diary kept by him during these twenty years shows 
the meager pleasures and grim duties of his task. 
Of this diary only a few fragmentary pages are ex- 
tant — three roughly bound collections of sheets, 
many of them torn, many of them half -burned, and 
their writing faded. But from almost every page 
that is legible some information is gleaned, concern- 
ing the life of the soldiers, the visits of the Indians, 
the state of the weather, and reflections on Indian 
relations and the best time for planting potatoes.^®^ 
His wide acquaintance and the great extent of terri- 
tory which his agency covered led to correspondence 
with many men. These letters also passed through 
a fire, and those that were rescued are now bound in 
four volumes. ^^^ 

His reports to General William Clark, Superin- 
tendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis, were for- 
warded to Washington where they are now kept in 
the files of the Indian office.^^* With methodical care 
Governor Clark copied the letters which he received 
into letter books. The existence of these letter 
books was not known until a few years ago, when 



70 OLD FORT SNELLING 

some of them were found in the hands of a junk 
dealer in Lawrence, Kansas, and were rescued — a 
great gain to the history of the West/^^ 

Many years after he closed his connection with the 
agency Lawrence Taliaferro wrote an "Autobiog- 
raphy" — a narrative that shows all the quaintness 
and egotism of the man. ''Not until after the year 
1840", he wrote "did the government become unfor- 
tunate in the selection of their agents for Indian 
affairs. " ^^''' From this account can be gleaned in- 
formation to supplement the bare facts usually given 
about his life. His ancestors had come to England 
from Genoa, Italy, and later they emigrated to Vir- 
ginia. Here Lawrence Taliaferro was born on Feb- 
ruary 28, 1794. At the age of eighteen he joined the 
army and served through the War of 1812, being a 
first lieutenant when it closed. Although he received 
no other promotion he was always known among his 
associates as " Major ".^" 

He was appointed Indian agent for St. Peter's on 
March 27, 1819, and on April 1, 1819, he accepted — 
resigning the same day from the army.'^^ He 
reached his new station probably in the summer of 
1820, and was immediately engaged in the duties 
connected with Indian affairs. ^^^ During his term of 
office he was continually troubled by ill-health wliich 
resulted from his campaigns in the late war. In 
1824 he resigned because of this ill-health, and al- 
though he continued in service. Governor Clark at 
one time wrote to the Secretary of War that "his 
fate is considered as verv doubtful.""" 



LORDS OF THE NORTH 71 

As early as 1831 lie confided to his diary that 
' ' there is something of a Combination of Persons at 
work day after day to pick at my Actions both public 
and private ".^°^ His resignation finally came in 
1839, and he closed his connection with the Depart- 
ment on January 1, 1840, because he could no longer 
endure the machinations of the traders/^^ There- 
after he made his home at Bedford, Pennsylvania, 
serving as a military storekeeper from 1857 to 1863, 
when he was put on the retired list. Mr. Taliaferro 
visited his old home at Fort Snelling in 1856 and 
wrote characteristically: ''We were in St. Paul on 
the twenty-fourth of June, the 'widow's son' was 
Irving 's Rip Van Winkle; after a nap of fifteen 
years, we awoke in the midst of fast times. We 
truly felt bewildered when we found all the haunts 
and resting-places of the once noble sons of the for- 
est, covered by cities, towns, and hamlets. We 
asked but few questions, being to our mind received 
as a strange animal ; if nothing worse. ' ' ^^^ 

Among the others who served before 1858 as In- 
dian agent were Amos J. Bruce, R. G. Murphy, and 
Nathaniel McLean. The influx of whites had greatly 
increased the difficulties of their position, and the 
memory of their former agent made the Indians sus- 
picious of their new advisers. The Governor of the 
Territory became the Superintendent of Indian Af- 
fairs, and his presence so near the agency took from 
the agent much of his power.^^* 

Scott Campbell, the interpreter at Fort Snelling, 



72 OLD FORT SNELLING 

was the intermediary between the Indians and their 
lords. He was a half-breed whom Meriwether Lewds 
had met on his expedition up the Missouri River. 
He took the boy with him back to St. Louis; and 
when Lewis died, Campbell returned to his Sioux 
relatives and finally drifted to the agency at Fort 
Snelling.^''^ Having a knowledge of four languages, 
and possessing the confidence of all the tribes within 
four hundred miles of the post, he was indispensable. 
From August, 1825, to April, 1826, he was engaged 
in the fur trade, but was lured back into service by 
a salary of thirty-four dollars per month and one 
ration per day. B}' 1843, however, he had become 
such a drunkard that he had to be dismissed.^''*' 

The veteran missionary, S. W. Pond, in recalling 
early days wrote that "Scott Campbell no longer sits 
smoking his long pipe, and conversing in low tones 
with the listless loungers around the old Agency 
House; but who that resided in this country thirty 
or forty years ago can pass by the old stone houses 
near Fort Snelling and not think of Major Talia- 
ferro and of his interpreter?"^" 

And who can pass the Old Round Tower without 
thinking of those men who as officers at Fort Snell- 
ing ruled supreme over a vast region, and who left 
the fort for places of greater trust and greater in- 
fluence? 



V 

A SOLDIER'S WORLD 

Instead of a world of city streets and country 
towns, of tilled fields and rivers busy with commerce, 
the raw recruit at Old Fort Snelling entered upon a 
world of stone barracks and Indian tepees, of 
tangled prairies and rushing rivers. ^^® The landing 
was directly under the cliff which towered above to 
a height which to many a wanderer in a frail canoe 
seemed tw^ice the one hundred and six feet which the 
scientist's instruments ascribed to iU^^ In later 
years a stairway led to the quarters of the command- 
ing officer, but the wagon road which crept upwards 
along the sandstone wall — ''nearly as white as \oaf- 
sugar"^°° — where the swallows flew in and out from 
their holes, gained the summit at the rear of the fort. 

Following the road through the gate, and passing 
between the buildings to the center of the parade 
ground, the recruit probably paused to look about 
him.^"^ Visible in the openings between the buildings 
was the stone wall about ten feet high which sur- 
rounded the barracks, quarters, and storehouses. 
This wall took the place of the picket-stockade which 
was so prominent a feature in earlier and ruder 
fortifications. Conforming to the arrangement of 
the buildings which it enclosed, the wall was dia- 

73 



74 OLD FORT SNELLING 

mond-shaped, one point being at the edge of the pro- 
montory where the valley of the Minnesota River 
met that of the Mississippi River. A second point 
was on the edge of the steep bluff which rose from 
the Mississippi. A third point, at a distance of 
about four hundred and fifty feet directly opposite 
the second, w^as on the summit of the Minnesota 
bluff. The fourth point was situated on the level 
ground of the plateau, at a distance of about seven 
hundred feet from the first point. 

As he stood in the middle of the parade ground 
and gazed beyond the pump and the magazine at the 
western or fourth point, the recruit saw rising to a 
height twice that of the wall, the Old Round Tower. 
To-day this tower is a vine-clad relic — a vestige 
remaining from the days of the past. But to the 
soldier of Old Fort Snelling it was a more practical 
structure — a place of lookout from which he was 
often to scan the sw^ells of the prairie for approach- 
ing Indians or returning comrades. At the second 
and third points were blockhouses — buildings of 
stone, each giving a view of the river below it. At 
the first point there was also a tower — a wooden 
lookout platform at the very edge of the precipice 
from which was visible the landscape surrounding 
the fort. 

But the soldier was doubtless more interested in 
the buildings in which he was to live. The barracks 
for the men were under the north wall and consisted 
of two buildings one story in height. The larger of 
these, which was intended to accommodate two com- 



lOZT.TJaVT^^ TJT01 (KIO '^lO X/.J'I 

\« »noii'>s\Vo''> 9rf) III booi/bo'fqo'f .HfitBiUiV^ •nrrfrtA itiaJqaO vd ■/•-.vii/i? n /rio'iT 
iir:r- .(( otisnqfjo .1117 .loT .\<^'<i'vo'>'. ^nVn^WiH .»V>?.'.>n(\'\r. 't^\ 



PLAX OF OLD FORT SXELT.TNG 

From a survey by Captain Arthur WiUiams, reproduced in the Collections of 
the Miiivesola. Historical Kociptfi, Vol. VIII. opposite p. 430 



A SOLDIER'S WORLD 75 

panies was divided into sets, each set having on the 
main floor an orderly-room and three squad-rooms, 
while below in the basement were a mess-room and 
a kitchen. The other barrack was intended to be 
occupied by one company only; and the orderly- 
room, squad-rooms, mess-rooms, and a kitchen were 
on the same floor. The cellars below were damp and 
w^ere used only for storage purposes. 

Occupying the same position under the south wall, 
and facing the barracks, were two other buildings, 
similar in appearance. In one of these the officers' 
charters were located. It was divided into twelve 
sets, each consisting of two rooms, the front one 
sixteen by fourteen feet, and the back one, eight by 
fifteen and a half feet. In the basement were located 
kitchens for each set. The other building contained 
the offices of the commanding officer, the paymaster, 
the quartermaster, and the commissary. Here was a 
room used by the post school, and another filled with 
harness. An ordnance sergeant and five laundresses 
found quarters in the same structure. 

The quarters of the commanding officer with the 
flag staff directly in front, faced the parade ground 
and the Old Round Tower. There were four rooms 
on the main floor and in the basement were kitchens 
and pantries. Other buildings were also included 
within the fort. The storehouse of the commissary 
department was located near the southern block- 
house ; and on either side of the gate were two build- 
ings, shunned by all — the guardhouse and the hos- 
pital. 



76 OLD FORT SNELLING 

Such was the plan of the fort, convenient in ar- 
rangement and beautiful in appearance ; but the re- 
port of an official inspection in 1827 complained that 
"the main points of defence against an enemy ap- 
pear to have been in some respects sacrificed in the 
effort to secure the comfort and convenience of the 
troops in peace. These are important considera- 
tions; but at an exposed frontier post the primary 
object must be security against the attack of an 
enemy. Health and comfort come next. The build- 
ings are too large, too numerous, and extending over 
a space entirely too great; enclosing a uselessly 
large parade, five times greater than is at all desir- 
able in that climate."-"^ 

A traveller who at a later day was entertained 
within the fort wrote of it facetiously in these w^ords : 
"The idea is further suggested, that the strong stone 
wall was rather erected to keep the garrison in, than 
the enemy out. Though adapted for mounting can- 
non if needful, the walls were unprovided with those 
weapons ; and the only piece of ordnance that I de- 
tected out of the magazine, was an old churn thrust 
gallantly through one of the embrasures. We were 
however far from complaining of the extra expense 
and taste which the worthy officer whose name it 
bears had expended on the erection of Fort Snelling, 
as it is in every way an addition to the sublime land- 
scape in which it is situated. ' ' ^"^ 

But an examination of the contents of the mag- 
azine would have revealed weapons more formidable 
than churns. Among the equipment reported in 



A SOLDIER'S WORLD 77 

1834 one reads of two iron twelve-pounder cannon 
of the garrison type ; three six-pounder iron cannon 
of the field type ; and two five and eight-tenths inch 
iron howitzers. There was also equipment for these 
pieces of artillery — carriages, sponges and ram- 
mers, lead aprons, dark lanterns, gunners' belts, 
gunners' haversacks, and tarpaulins. There were 
stored ready for service, 440 balls for the twelve- 
pounders, 1255 balls for the six-pounders, 546 
pounds of mixed loose grapeshot, and many other 
sizes of strapped and canister shot. For the use of 
the infantry there were 7749 musket flints, 1825 
pounds of musket powder, 1513 pounds of rifle pow- 
der, 31,390 cartridges, and 2047 blank cartridges. ^°* 

Other structures closely connected with the work 
of the fort were located outside the wall. The build- 
ings of the Indian agency were situated a quarter of 
a mile west, on the prairie. ^"^ These consisted of a 
council house, the agent's house, and an armorer's 
shop. The original council house was built by the 
troops in 1823, but Agent Taliaferro claimed that 
most of the inside work was done at his own expense. 
The building was of logs and stone, eighty-two feet 
long, eighteen feet wide, and presenting in the front 
a piazza of seventy feet. Within, there were six 
rooms, lined with pine planking and separated from 
each other by panel doors. ^°® 

At one o 'clock on the morning of August 14, 1830, 
the sentinels at the fort discovered that the council 
house was on fire. But the flames had gained so 
much headway that it was impossible to save any of 



78 OLD FORT SNELLING 

the contents. The interpreter and his family who 
lived in this building barely escaped with their lives. 
In reporting the loss to the superintendent, Major 
Taliaferro wrote that "the general impression here 
is that fire was put to the house by Some drunken 
Indians & circumstances are strong in justifying 
such a conclusion. ' ' -" This surmise was right, for 
on April 7, 1831, the Indians delivered at the fort 
one of their number who they claimed was guilty of 
the act.^°^ 

That steps were taken to build a new council house 
is evident from the record in Taliaferro's diary 
under date of March 8, 1831, that four men had lieen 
hired "at $12 per Month to cut & carry timber out of 
the pine Swamp for the Agency Council House. "^"^ 
But in 1839 Taliaferro recommended that the agency 
be moved to a point seven miles up the river ; and in 
1841 there was a movement on foot to buy Baker's 
stone trading house for the same purpose.-^" 

Near the location of the old council house were two 
other buildings. One of these was the agent's house. 
This was made entirely of stone, and was one and a 
half stories high. It contained four rooms and a 
passage on the lower floor and two rooms alcove.-" 
Hastily built by troops at an early day, its comforts 
were few. "Since the Rainy Season Set in", com- 
plained the agent in 1834, "both the hired Men and 
Myself have not had a Spot in our houses that Could 
be called dry, Not even our beds".-^- An armorer's 
shop, where blacksmith work was done for the In- 
dians, was made of logs and measured sixteen by 



A SOLDIER'S WORLD 79 

eighteen feet. Nearer the fort was the home of 
Franklin Steele, the sutler of the post.^^^ 

At Camp Cold Water, B. F. Baker had erected a 
large stone trading house, which in 1841 was valued 
at six thousand dollars. While he had no legal title 
to the land on which this house was built, the officers 
at the post allowed him to remain. Later it was sold 
to Kenneth McKenzie, who in 1853 built an addition, 
renovated the entire building, and used it as a hotel. 
In the vicinity of this structure were several small 
huts which had been the homes of some squatters on 
the reservation. But after their expulsion these 
huts rapidly fell into decay.^^* 

In his duties and recreations the soldier was often 
brought into touch with other features of the world 
about him — the points of scenic interest and the 
Indian villages. From the wooden lookout tower 
near the commanding officer's quarters a glimpse of 
the surrounding land was revealed. 

*'The view from the angle of the wall at the ex- 
treme point, is highly romantic", wrote one who saw 
the wild scene before civilization had left its traces 
on the landscape. ' ^ To your left lies the broad deep 
valley of the Mississippi, with the opposite heights 
descending precipitously to the water 's edge ; and to 
the right and in front, the St. Peter's, a broad 
stream, worthy from its size, length of course, and 
the number of tributaries which it receives, to be 
called the Western Fork of the Great River itself. 
It is seen flowing through a comparatively open vale, 
with swelling hills and intermingling forest and 



80 OLD FORT SNELLING 

prairie, for many miles above the point of junction. 
As it approaches the Mississippi, the volume of 
water divides into two branches; that on the right 
pursues the general course of the river above, and 
enters the Mississippi, at an angle of perhaps fifty 
degrees, directly under the walls of the fort; while 
the other, keeping to the base of the high prairie 
lands which rise above it to a notable summit called 
the Pilot Knob, enters the Mississippi lower down. 
The triangular island thus formed between the rivers 
lies immediately under the fort. Its level surface 
is partially cultivated, but towards the lower extrem- 
ity thickly covered with wood. Beyond their junc- 
tion, the united streams are seen gliding at the base 
of high cliffs into the narrowing valley below. For- 
ests, and those of the most picturesque character, 
interspersed with strips of prairie, clothe a great 
portion of the distant view. 

*'A little cluster of trading houses is situated on 
the right branch of the St. Peter's, and here and 
there on the shores, and on the island, you saw the 
dark conical tents of the wandering Sioux. A more 
striking scene we had not met with in the United 
States, and hardly any that could vie with it for pic- 
turesque beauty, even at this unfavourable season. 
What must it be in spring, when the forests put forth 
their young leaves, and the prairies are clothed in 
verdure !"^^^ 

This ''little cluster of trading houses" was the 
town of Mendota. Here was the stone house of 
Henry H. Sibley, and that of J. B. Faribault. Near 



A SOLDIER'S WORLD 81 

the river was the ferry house and the home of Mr. 
Finley the ferryman.-"' Upon the hillside lay the 
little Catholic chapel, surrounded by the graves in 
the cemetery. But the center of interest was in the 
warehouse and store of the American Fur Company, 
where the skins of buffalo, elk, deer, fox, beaver, 
otter, muskrat, mink, martin, raccoon, and other an- 
imals were sorted and divided into packs weighing 
about a hundred pounds. Indians, Frenchmen, half- 
breeds, and restless wanderers from the East were 
always loitering about the establishment.^" 

From the fort a road led along the Mississippi to 
the Falls of St. Anthony, on the way crossing Minne- 
haha Creek on the bridge built in early days by the 
soldiers. Here a stop was made to view the beauty 
of the cascade then known as Little Falls or Brown's 
Falls. It was the common practice for travellers to 
descend to the foot of the falls, clinging to the shrubs 
along the slippery pathway, and then go behind the 
sheet of falling water.^^* Continuing, at a distance 
of eight miles up the Mississippi from the fort, the 
Falls of St. Anthony was reached. Although only 
sixteen feet high, the breadth of almost six hundred 
yards, broken in the middle by a rocky island gave 
to it an impressive majesty, and the thick vegetation 
on the island and banks returned a gloomy reflection 
from the whirling waters.^^® 

It is no wonder that in that wild and picturesque 
locality the Indians saw things ghostly and super- 
natural. ''They tell you that here a young Dacota 
mother, goaded by jealousy, — the husband [sic] of 



82 OLD FORT SNELLING 

her children having taken another wife, — unmoored 
her canoe above the Great Fall, and seating herself 
and her children in it, — sang her death song, and 
went over the foaming acclivity in the face and amid 
the shrieks of her tribe. And often, the Indian be- 
lieves, when the nights are calm, and the sky se- 
rene, — and the dew-drops are hanging motionless 
on the sprays of the weeping birch on the island, — 
and the country far and w^ide is vibrating to the mur- 
mur of the cataract, — that then the misty form of 
the young mother may be seen moving down the 
deceitful current above, while her song is heard 
mingling its sad notes with the lulling sound of * the 
Laughing Water ! ' " ^^° 

Here at the Falls, on the west bank of the river, 
were three buildings : a saw mill, a grist mill, and 
a one-story frame dwelling, where a detachment of 
soldiers always remained to guard the property. 
The saw mill had provided much of the lumber used 
in the construction of the fort, and in the grist mill 
the corn was cracked that was fed during the winter 
to the cattle — a drove being delivered every fall for 
the use of the garrison. These buildings were still 
standing in 1858, although they were then in a l)ad 
state of decay.^^^ 

Among the lakes on the prairie the most important 
were the Lake of the Isles, Lake Calhoun, and Lake 
Harriet. These were favorite picnic and hunting 
grounds for the men and women of the garrison. An 
old map made in 1823 shows ''Grreen's Villa" on 
Lake Calhoun — probably a hunting lodge or shelter 



A SOLDIER'S WORLD 83 

built by Lieutenant Piatt Rogers Green.^^- Here on 
Lake Calhoun was located the missionary establish- 
ment which was so closely connected with the life of 
the fort.^'^ 

There were other Indian villages near the fort. 
Nine miles below, on the bank of the Mississippi was 
the Sioux village of Kaposia. Here Wakinyantanka, 
or Big Thunder, reigned over his band which num- 
bered one hundred and eighty-three in 1834. Two 
or three miles upstream from its mouth on the banks 
of the Minnesota was the group of wig-warns called 
Black Dog's village, although the chief was Wamdi- 
tanka or Big Eagle. About nine miles from Fort 
Snelling was Pinisha, reported as having one hun- 
dred and forty-eight inhabitants ruled over by Good 
Road. The largest group, three hundred and sixty- 
eight souls, was that of the Tintatonwan band, lo- 
cated twenty-four miles from Fort Snelling and near 
the present town of Shakopee. Shapaydan or Shak- 
pay was the chief, the father of the Avarrior of the 
same name who was executed at Fort Snelling for 
participating in the Sioux massacre of 1862."^ 

These villages were ver}^ much the same in appear- 
ance, large bark lodges being occupied bj^ the Indians 
in the summer. The villages swarmed with chil- 
dren, squaws, painted warriors, and yelping dogs. 
About the lodges were the corn fields, the scaffolds 
where the corn was dried, and the more mournful 
scaffolds where, wrapped in buffalo skins, reposed 
the bones of the hunters who had followed the milky 
wav to the "Land of the Ghosts ".^^^ 



VI 

GLIMPSES OF GARRISON LIFE 

What sort of a life did the soldier live in the bar- 
racks and on the parade ground, and in the world 
of prairies, rivers, and woods that lay about him? 
No person who was ever quartered within the walls 
of Old Fort Snelling seems to have left an account 
of what was included in the tasks and recreations of 
a day. Doubtless the routine duties repeated day 
after day were thought too ordinary to be worth re- 
cording. The pleasures were so simple and came 
so much as a matter of course that they also receive 
scant mention in the annals of the fort. It is from 
the General Regulations for the Army that one gets 
the daily program of a military post; and the few 
fragmentary pages of Taliaferro's diary and letters, 
together w^itli the stray remarks of travellers and 
pioneers, indicate the joys and sorrows of a very 
human garrison."® 

No sooner was dawn visible over the Mississippi 
bluffs than the musicians of the post were summoned 
to the parade ground and five minutes later the 
reveille was sounded. At the signal both ojflficers 
and men arose. Soon the rolls of the companies 
were called in front of the quarters; the quarters 
were put in order; the ground in front swept; and 

84 



GLIMPSES OF GARRISON LIFE 85 

the horses fed and watered. At eight-thirty the sick 
in the barracks were taken to the hospital, and at 
nine o'clock breakfast was served, preceded by a 
second roll-call. Then the various tasks of the day 
were performed under the direction of a captain or 
subaltern daily detailed as the ''officer of the day". 

A party termed the ' ' General Fatigue ' ' swept the 
entire parade ground — unless there were enough 
prisoners in the guard house to perform this un- 
pleasant duty. A police guard furnished sentinels 
to watch over the prisoners, the colors, the quarters 
of the commanding officer, and the arms of the regi- 
ment. Other soldiers were posted at the front and 
the rear of the fort. Certain detachments w^ere 
formed for reconnoitering and foraging — the nature 
of the tasks depending on the season of the year and 
the needs of the garrison. 

At three o 'clock in the afternoon the third roll-call 
was followed by dinner; and thirty minutes before 
sunset the music called out the regiment for dress 
parade, where various maneuvers were gone through 
and orders were read. After the parade, when the 
regiment was again in its quarters, the arms were 
placed in the arm-racks, the horses attended to, a 
fifth roll-call endured, and tattoo sounded. Then 
the lights were extinguished and all were expected 
to be quiet for the night. 

This monotony of the daily program was equalled 
only by the monotony of the meals. The regulation 
diet prescribed by Congress in 1802 consisted of a 
pound and a quarter of beef, or three-cjuarters of a 



86 OLD FORT SNELLING 

pound of pork; eighteen ounces of bread or flour; 
one gill of rum, whiskey, or brandy; and for every 
hundred rations were supplied two quarts of salt, 
four quarts of vinegar, four pounds of soap, and one 
pound and a half of candles. In 1832 coffee and 
sugar were substituted for the liquor.^" 

During the early years of Fort Snelling these sup- 
plies were brought from St. Louis in flatboats. With 
the development of steamboat traffic, the steamboat 
was utilized, but it did not entirely displace the ear- 
lier method. Difficulties often hindered the trans- 
portation of supplies. The summer of 1829 was ex- 
tremely dry. The average monthly rainfall was less 
than an inch, and steamboat navigation was impos- 
sible. Even keelboats found difficulty in ascending 
the river ; sixty days were spent by Lieutenant Rey- 
nolds in bringing up a load of supplies. A sand bar 
at Pine Bend was impassable, so half of the load was 
taken off and the rest hurried up the river. Wlien 
the crew arrived the garrison w^as upon its last 
barrel of flour.-^^ 

** Bread and soup", runs a clause in the General 
Regulations for the Army, ''are the great items of a 
soldier 's diet, in every situation ' '.^^^ The bread was 
made from the w^heat grown by the soldiers, and was 
ground in the mill at the Falls of St. Anthony, For 
some reason the crop of 1823 had become mouldy 
and the bread was black and bitter. When forced 
to eat it, the troops almost mutinied, bringing it out 
upon the parade ground and throwing it down.-'" 
Nor does it seem likely that the soup was more appe- 



GLIMPSES OF GARRISON LIFE 



tizing when one reads the following recipe which 
guided the company cooks: ''To make soup, put 
into the vessel at the rate of five pints of water to a 
pound of fresh meat ; apply a quick heat to make it 
boil promptly ; skim off the foam, and then moderate 
the fire ; salt is then put in, according to the palate. 
Add the vegetables of the season one or two hours, 
and sliced bread some minutes, before the simmer- 
ing is ended. When the broth is sensibly reduced in 
quantity, that is, after five or six hours cooking, the 
process will be complete."^" 

Fortunately the soldier did not have to depend 
entirely on these rations. Out of his modest cash 
income of six dollars per month he could buy at the 
sutler's store small necessities and some luxuries. 
The sutler was the authorized merchant of the post, 
and in order that his monopoly might not lead him 
to demand unreasonable sums for his wares, the 
prices were fixed by a "council of administration" 
composed of three officers. For every officer and 
enlisted soldier serving at the post the sutler paid 
into the ''post fund", from ten to fifteen cents per 
month. This sum was to be used for the relief of 
the widows or orphans of soldiers, the maintenance 
of a post school and band, and the purchase of books 
for a library.^^^ 

The books of Franklin Steele, who was the sutler 
at Fort Snelling from 1838 to 1858, may still be ex- 
amined ; and from their dreary lists of accounts, the 
human wants of a soldier at Old Fort Snelling are 
clearly indicated. -^^ On March 12, 1849, Private 



OLD FORT SNELLING 



Brown bought a pound of currants and a pound of 
raisins for fifty cents. Shoes, soap, and currants 
totalled $1.50 on April 7th ; and on March 20th, two 
pounds of butter sold for thirty cents and a pound of 
cheese for forty-two cents. Private Byerson had 
more varied needs. On March 7th, 1849, he pur- 
chased indigo ; on March 16th, paper ; on April 9th, 
alcohol and suspenders ; five days later, needles and 
sugar; and on April 23rd, apples, butter, and a tin 
cup. The quiet waters in the neighboring lakes 
tempted Eli Pettijohn on a spring day in 1855 to 
invest $2.50 in "Fishing Taekel". 

That the officers did not live upon the same fare as 
the soldiers is indicated by the entries under the title 
''Officers Mess". On July 31, 1855, there was pur- 
chased ten cents worth of cloves, ten cents worth of 
pepper, and ninety-five cents worth of cheese. Un- 
der the date of August 8th ''Bread tickets" were 
purchased to the amount of one dollar; and on 
August 30th, fifty cents worth of "Yeast Powd'r" 
was charged to their account. 

Saint and sinner both patronized this store. The 
Eeverend Ezekiel Gear, who was the chaplain at 
the fort, evidently believed that cleanliness was next 
to godliness, for on July 31, 1855, he paid thirty 
cents for a scrub brush; on August 4th, he bought 
a broom for fifty cents; on August 30th, he pur- 
chased twenty-five cents worth of starch, and on 
October 19th, a large broom. Indulging in some 
luxuries, on August 2nd, 1855, he bought five cents 
worth of candy. Probablv this was a treat for those 



GLIMPSES OF GARRISON LIFE 89 

two boys, Ms son and his grandson, whom a visitor 
two years later found sleeping in the little cemetery 
at Morgan's Bluff near the fort, their resting place 
marked by a rude slab with a Latin inscription: 
''Lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in death not 
divided. ' ' ^^* 

None the less clearly is the character of Sergeant 
Mahoney portrayed in these accounts. On July 31, 
1855, it is recorded under his name : ' ' 1 Flask $.75 ' '. 
On August 20th, the same officer paid seventy-five 
cents for a bottle of cider. And the chaplain would 
have had an excellent illustration for his next ser- 
mon on intemperance if he could have read, as we 
can to-day, this melancholy note made in the sutler's 
book on October 17th: ''Sergeant Mahoney, Cash 
Loaned 20.00". 

There was need for sermons on intemperance. 
During the early years whiskey was issued as a part 
of the soldier's ration, and this only served to stim- 
ulate the desire for more. The class of men in the 
army was not alw^ays of the highest, and there were 
enough civilians who were willing to pander to their 
appetites. The following extract from Taliaferro's 
diary for March 22, 1831, is undoubtedly character- 
istic of many a forgotten episode : ' ' Nothing of im- 
portance transpired this day Two drunken Soldiers 
in crossing the SPeters broke through the Ice & were 
near being drowned. They were exceeding alarmed 
& made a hedious Noise & yelling for Assistance — 
the men from the Fort relieved them although late 
at night." Not always was assistance on hand in 



90 OLD FORT SNELLING 

such circumstances. A report was made in March, 
1840, of a certain officer who '* disappeared on the 
evening of the 5th of March, supposed to have been 
drowned by f alHng through the ice. ' ' -^^ 

Drunkenness and absence from roll-call were 
among the infractions of rules for which punishment 
was most often inflicted. The character and sever- 
ity of the punishment depended upon the mood of 
the commanding officer. Colonel Snelling, who was 
usually a very gentle man, was particularly severe 
in his treatment of offenders. ' ' He would take them 
to his room", wrote one who spent several years in 
the Snelling household, ''and compel them to strip, 
when he would flog them unmercifully. I have heard 
them beg him to spare them, 'for God's sake.' "-"*' 
This punishment by flogging was often performed 
with a "cat" — an instrument made of nine thongs 
about eighteen inches long, knotted in every inch, 
and attached to a small stick. When the culprit was 
stripped to the waist and tied to the flagstaff, the 
drummers took turns in applying the "cat" to the 
bare back.-" 

Other officers used less painful methods. Thus, 
Major Loomis was known as "Old Ring", since his 
favorite punishment was to place a log of wood upon 
the prisoner's shoulder and compel him to walk 
around and around in a circle under the vigilant eye 
of a sentinel. To Major John Bliss, who was in 
command at Fort Snelling from 1833 to 1836, the 
name "Black Starvation" might well have been ap- 
plied. The negro servant, Hannibal, who clandes- 



GLIMPSES OF GARRISON LIFE 91 

tinely sold spruce beer to the soldiers was confined 
in the Black Hole for forty-eight hours ; and Private 
Kelly, who refused to do his part in the fatigue 
party spent more than seventy-two hours in the 
Black Hole before the pangs of starvation persuaded 
him to promise Major Bliss to be good in the 
future.^^* On one occasion, which may be taken as 
typical of usual conditions, out of a total garrison 
of three hundred and twenty-nine, twenty-six were 
confined in prison. But at another time the com- 
manding officer could report : ' ' No Convicts at this 
Post".''« 

The severity of the military rules and the monot- 
ony of the life led to two undesirable consequences — 
mutinies and desertions. Of the former there is 
apparently no description, and the brief entry in 
Taliaferro's diary for February 3, 1831, leaves much 
to the imagination : ' 'Mutiny of Most of the Troops 
of the 1st Infantry, Stationed at Fort Snelling this 
Morning".^*'' What grievances led to the uprising 
on that wintry day, and by what diplomacy or by 
w^hat punishments it was put dowm, are unrecorded. 

Concerning the extent of desertions there is spe- 
cific information regarding three years. Desertion 
was prevalent in the army at this time, and in order 
to provide methods of combating it the Secretary of 
War presented to Congress a great deal of informa- 
tion covering the years from 1823 to 1825.-*^ During 
these three years there were stationed at Fort Snell- 
ing an aggregate of two hundred and fifty-one sol- 
diers in 1823; three hundred and thirty-five in 1824; 



92 OLD FORT SMELLING 

and two hundred and forty-six in 1825.^*^ Of these, 
six deserted in 1823, eight in 1824, and twenty-nine 
in 1825. In this total of forty-three desertions, fif- 
teen left in their first year of service, seventeen in 
the second, eighteen in the third, one in the fourth, 
and two in the fifth. Interesting facts regarding the 
kind of men who lived at the old frontier post can be 
gleaned from the data presented. Most of them 
were between the ages of twenty-one and thirty. In 
occupation there were laborers, farmers, painters, 
shoemakers, papermakers, wheelwrights, jewellers, 
and brewers. Among these forty-three, twenty-six 
were born in the United States, five in Ireland, two 
in Scotland, one in France, one in Holland, and one 
in Canada. 

The soldier who sought freedom by stealthily 
climbing over the stone wall of Fort Snelling and 
appropriating some canoe drawn up on the river 
bank, left monotony and discipline behind him; but 
in doing so he faced many dangers. There was no 
settlement nearer than Prairie du Chien — a mili- 
tary establishment. Indians were not afraid to in- 
jure those w^hom they knew to be deserters. A cer- 
tain man by the name of Dixon who deserted w^as 
captured by Indians who brought him back to Fort 
Snelling and received a reward of twenty dollars. 
Dixon was court-martialed and sentenced to receive 
fifty lashes from the ''cat" and then to be drummed 
out of the Fort.^*^ Four soldiers who escaped were 
killed by the Indians of Red Wing's band, and their 



GLIMPSES OF GARRISON LIFE 93 

bodies were left on the shores of Lake Pepin, where 
they were later found half -eaten by the birds.^** 

Sickness and death reduced the number on duty 
at the post. From the doctor the sick received pro- 
fessional aid. In 1826 when the force at Fort Snell- 
ing amounted to three hundred and twenty-nine men 
there were in the hospital one subaltern, one non- 
commissioned officer, one musician, and fifteen pri- 
vates. That Fort Snelling was at a healthful loca- 
tion is indicated by the fact that during the same 
period at Fort Atkinson, with a force of only one 
hundred more, there was a total of one hundred and 
twenty-five sick persons. ^*^ 

The number of deaths was proportionately small. 
In the year ending on September 30, 1823, there was 
only one death ; the next year the toll was the same ; 
and in 1825 it amounted to five.^*" On the occasion 
of a funeral six men, detailed from those of the same 
rank as the deceased, carried the coffin to the little 
cemetery outside the fort. A salute was fired over 
the grave and the band played solemn music, the 
drums being covered with black crepe. The mounds 
in the cemetery, unmarked by any stones, were soon 
obliterated; but if the departed soldier had been a 
cheerful companion his barrack-songs were missed 
by his comrades, and many friends, half-way across 
a continent, would mourn for one who was lying in 
an unknown grave, ''somewhere in the West".^*^ 

On account of monotonous drills and tedious rou- 
tine, any pretext to go into the Indian country was 



94 OLD FORT SNELLING 

hailed with delight. The bustle, excitement, and 
troubles connected with the departure of these ex- 
peditions are best described by Mrs. Seth Eastman, 
who as the wife of the commanding officer had often 
waved farewell to the departing company."^* 

''Now for excitement, the charm of garrison life. 
Officers are of course always ready to 'go where 
glory waits' them, but who ever heard of one being 
ready to go when the order came? 

"Alas! for the young officer who has a wife to 
leave; it will be weeks before he meets again her 
gentle smile ! 

' ' Still more — alas for him who has no wife at all ! 
for he has not a shirt with buttons on it, and most 
of what he has are in the wash. He will have to 
borrow of Selden ; but here 's the difficulty, Selden is 
going too, and is worse off than himself. But no 
matter ! What with pins and twine and trusting to 
chance, they will get along. 

"Then the married men are inquiring for tin re- 
flectors, for hard bread, though healthy, is never 
tempting. India rubber cloaks are in requisition 
too. 

' ' Those who are going, claim the doctor in case of 
accidents. Those who staj^, their wives at least, 
want him for fear of measles; while the disciple of 
Esculapius, though he knows there will be better 
cooking if he remain at home, is certain there will be 
food for fun if he go. It is soon decided — the doc- 
tor goes. 

"Then the privates share in the pleasure of the 



GLIMPSES OF GARRISON LIFE 95 

day. How should a soldier be employed but in 
active service! besides, what a capital chance to 
desert! One, who is tired of calling 'All's well' 
through the long night, with only the rocks and trees 
to hear him, hopes that it will be his happy fate to 
find out there is danger near, and to give the alarm. 
Another vows, that if trouble wont come, why he will 
bring it by quarrelling with the first rascally Indian 
he meets. All is ready. Rations are put up for the 
men; — hams, buffalo tongues, pies and cake for the 
officers. The batallion marches out to the sound of 
the drum and fife ; — they are soon down the hill — 
they enter their boats; handkerchiefs are waved 
from the fort, caps are raised and flourished over 
the water — they are almost out of sight — they are 
gone. ' ' 

Apart from these trips abroad and the stated 
drills and terms of guard duty the tasks which occu- 
pied the time of the soldiers depended upon the sea- 
son of the year. A general order of September 11, 
1818, had commanded the making of gardens at all 
the military posts. -*^ In the fall of 1819 when the 
temporary cabins at New Hope Cantonment had 
been built, the soldiers began ploughing for the crop 
of the next summer.^^" Major Long, in 1823, found 
two hundred and ten acres under cultivation — one 
hundred of wheat, sixty of maize, fifteen of oats, 
fourteen of potatoes, and twenty acres in gardens.^^^ 
All through the history of Old Fort Snelling the 
soldiers were employed as farmers. A visitor in 
1852 observed that ''its garrison is rather deficient 



96 OLD FORT SNELLING 

in active employment, and we noticed a number of 
the rank and file taking exercise in a large corn and 
vegetable field attached to the Fort. It was cer- 
tainly not exactly soldierly employment, but it was 
more manly, to our mind, than shooting and stabbing 
at $8 a month, and no question asked. ' ' ^^^ 

For the horses and cattle kept at the fort a great 
deal of hay was necessary for the winter months. 
This was obtained from the broad prairies of the 
military reservation. A group of men called the 
''Hay Party" were employed during the summer in 
cutting and stacking the long grass. But one officer 
was of the opinion that this task caused discontent — 
the enlisted man was no more than a common laborer 
and hence he lost the pride of a soldier. 

The diverse tasks at which a soldier might be 
called to labor are indicated by a summary of the 
employment of the troops in 1827. Seven soldiers 
were acting as teamsters, five were performing car- 
penters' duties, two were quarrying stone, two men 
and a sergeant composed the party guarding the 
mills at the Falls of St. Anthony, and eight others 
were "Procuring forage by order of Col. Snell- 
insr' '.^^^ 

Summer brought its own pleasures as well as 
duties. At Lake Calhoun, Lake Harriet, Lake of the 
Isles, and Minnehaha Falls, many were the picnics 
held when visitors came to the garrison.-^* Swan, 
geese, and ducks were numerous about the lakes and 
swamps, and with the famous hunter H. H. Sibley 
as a guide, the game bags were soon filled. During 



GLIMPSES OF GARRISON LIFE 97 

a period of three years, Mr. Sibley, alone, shot 1798 
ducks — a fact which indicates what success a sol- 
dier-sportsman could have in his few hours of recre- 
ation."^ 

But it was when the prairies were impassable be- 
cause of drifts of snow from six to fifteen feet 
high,"^ and when the course of the river could be 
traced only by a streak of white between the gray 
of its wooded banks that there appeared those feat- 
ures which are peculiar to the life of a remote gar- 
rison. The isolation was almost complete. There 
was no traffic upon the frozen river, and the traders 
were wintering in the Indian villages. Only through 
the mail was communication with the outside world 
possible. It was planned to have a monthly mail 
service, soldiers being sent to Prairie du Chien with 
the letters. Here they delivered about two-thirds of 
the mail to the persons to whom it was addressed 
and the rest was deposited in the post office."^' 

In summer the mail was carried by the soldiers in 
canoes, but in winter the journey had to be made on 
foot. In summer the labor was lightened when a 
passing steamer overtook the rowing soldiers and 
picked up the canoe with its crew. In winter no 
such aid was possible. A hard day's tramp was fol- 
lowed by a night among the drifts, unless the tepee 
of some friendly Indian gave a temporary respite 
for a few hours.^^^ 

Nor was this task free from perils. A system was 
arranged whereby a courier from Fort Snelling and 
one from Prairie du Chien set out at about the same 



98 OLD FORT SNELLING 

time, meeting at Wabasha's village where the packs 
were exchanged and each returned to his own post. 
On one occasion a spring thaw overtook the carrier 
from Prairie du Chien, who had proceeded beyond 
the meeting place because the messenger from the 
north was late. Suddenly the ice groaned and 
cracked, and the postman with difficulty found safety 
on a small island where, to his great surprise, he 
found the postman from Fort Snelling who had been 
caught in the same manner. Their provisions soon 
gave out; for a while they had only rose-apples to 
eat. It was not until almost two weeks later that 
the two half-starved messengers were picked up by 
the canoes of some friendly Sioux.-^" 

Such accidents rendered the mail service uncer- 
tain, and it w^as with impatience that the watchers 
at the fort looked down the river for the coming of 
the news-carriers. On April 2, 1831, Taliaferro 
wrote : ' ' The Express departed — 4 men in a Skiff — 
to convey the Mail to the Post Office at Prairie du 
Chiens — our return Express daily expected." But 
they hoped too early and on April 5th it was record- 
ed that ''Our Express — 1st which left for Prairie 
du Chiens on the 2d of March — has now been Ab- 
sent more than a Month & progressing in the Sec- 
cond. "We have not had inteligence from Washing- 
ton City — since the 6th of December last". Not 
until April 10th did the mail arrive. But even when 
the messengers were safe in the fort it was not cer- 
tain that they brought what was so eagerly looked 
for, as the entry on February 27tli clearly shows: 



GLIMPSES OF GARRISON LIFE 99 

''Lieut Williams & Mr Bailly returned this eveng 
from Prairie du Cliiens but brought no Mail there 
having been no arrival since December. ' ' ^^^ It was 
during this winter that even Prairie du Chien w^as 
shut off from the outside, the amount of snow be- 
tween Peoria and Prairie du Chien stopping the mail 
service for two months. Again and again during 
the winter months the commanding officer com- 
plained to headquarters that "no Orders have been 
received within the Month ".^" 

The duties of the soldiers during the winter were 
few. From the time it w^as built up to 1833 the 
quarters at Fort Snelling were heated by fireplaces. 
At that time, however, stoves were substituted.-®^ 
Wood was used for fuel — to obtain which was a 
never-ending task in winter. When Captain Seth 
Eastman was in command at various periods from 
1844 to 1848 the garrison had to go from eight to 
ten miles for wood. The banks of the Minnesota 
River were bordered by a forest varying from one 
hundred to three hundred yards wide; but by 1858 
all of this for a distance of twelve miles had been 
cleared off.^®^ 

Colonel John H. Bliss, who Avas a boy at Fort 
Snelling when his father was in command during the 
thirties, wrote that the winters "were undeniably 
tedious, but had their uses; we had a good library, 
and I read a great deal, which has stood by me well ; 
then there was of course much sociability among the 
officers, and a great deal of playing of cards, dom- 
inoes, checkers, and chess. The soldiers, too, would 



100 OLD FORT SNELLING 

get up theatrical performances every fortnight or so, 
those taking female parts borrowing dresses from 
the soldiers' wives, and making a generous sacri- 
fice to art of their cherished whiskers and mus- 
taches."'"-* 

During October, 1836, Inspector General George 
Croghan visited Fort Snelling, and on the evening 
of the seventh of the month the Thespian Players 
presented Monsieur Tonson in his honor. And here, 
far from city streets and French barbers, on a rude 
stage. Jack Ardourly fell in love with the beautiful 
Adolphine de Courcy — who probably only a few 
hours l^efore had been hurrying to finish a task of 
cleaning guns so that she could call on the generous 
women of the garrison and beg from them capes and 
bonnets and hoops skirts ! ^^^ 

Many of the officers were graduates of West Point, 
and their wives were from the best families of the 
East and South. On January 20, 1831, the ladies 
and gentlemen of the garrison had a party at the 
fort. "The room was tastefully decorated — and 
the evening passed pleasantly". On February 22nd 
of the same year the quarters of the commanding- 
officer were the scene of another party in commemo- 
ration of Washington's birthday.'*'*' 

Efforts were made to provide for the education of 
the children of the fort. Mrs. Snelling at first taught 
her own children; but it is evident that there was 
soon a tutor, as the correspondence of Colonel Snell- 
ing shows that John Marsh received his board and 
seventy-five dollars for acting as tutor during the 



GLIMPSES OF GARRISON LIFE 101 

winter of 1823-1824. This schoolmaster also carried 
the mail to Prairie du Chien in return for forty dol- 
lars. ^^^ Soon after the appointment of a regular 
chaplain in 1838 the post school was more thoroughly 
organized. -"^ 

Occasionally there was some excitement at the 
fort. During the month of Februarj^ in 1831 there 
was an epidemic of fires. First, the officers row of 
buildings caught on fire in the room of Lieutenant 
Greenough on February 10th. On the next day a 
second fire broke out; and on February 24th the 
agency house took fire both from the inside and the 
outside in such a manner that it was evident that an 
incendiary had been at work.-*'^ 

But such events were of unusual occurrence. A 
letter written at Fort Snelling on February 11, 1842, 
pictures the usual winter life. ' ' We of the garrison 
are as usual at this season rather dull, stale & un- 
profitable — small parties for Tea are a good deal 
the fashion, & tattle is used as formerly. Indian Ball 
plays are coming in season. One comes off today in 
which stacks of property are to be invested. The 
Sioux have been hunting about Rum River this win- 
ter and have killed great numbers of Dear — Our 
winter has been mild, one day only 30 below^ zero, 
and the rest comfortable. . . Tonight Mumford 
gives a Soiree to the good folks of the garrison and 
this is the most exciting event of the week. What is 
the use of writing to you as I cannot find enough 
wherewith to fill two pages." -^° 

Such close confinement was tolerable when the 



102 OLD FORT SXELLING 

garrison was composed of congenial spirits, but oc- 
casionally it brought about dissensions and quarrels. 
Taliaferro on one occasion wrote that the '* Society 
here is not in the most pleasant State from a System 
of tatling which has been reduced to a Science — not 
to be envied. "^^^ Occasionally open encounters 
took place. One soldier stabbed another with a 
butcher's knife, and the victim died.^^^ In February, 
1826, two officers of the garrison engaged in a duel.^'^ 
Even those in authority were not free from partici- 
pation in these ^ ' affairs of honor ' '. A certain young 
officer challenged Colonel Snelling, and upon his re- 
fusing, his son, William Joseph Snelling, accepted 
and was slightly wounded. When the officer was 
court-martialed he accused one of the witnesses of 
being an infidel. Whereupon the latter challenged 
the officer in his turn, and a second duel was fought — 
which was bloodless. ^^* 

With such conditions prevailing during the win- 
ter months it is no wonder that from day to day 
spring was eagerly looked for. Undoubtedly it was 
a happy occasion when the agent could record on the 
evening of Sunday, March 27, 1831, that the weather 
was ''more pleasant — Wild geese seen this day — 
gentlemen generally [illegible] out and Walking — 
The Ladies also".-'" It meant a speedy return of 
summer pleasures and summer visitors. For when, 
even at a remote military post did these fail as three 
sure signs of spring — pleasant weather, flocks of 
geese, and ladies and gentlemen out walking together ? 

They were very human, these men and women of 
Old Fort Snelling. 



VII 
THE FORT AND INDIAN LIFE 

It was a humane but visionary plan which Rever- 
end Jedidiah Morse in 1822 presented to the Secre- 
tary of War as the correct method of procedure in 
the task of civilizing the Indians. At various cen- 
ters in the Indian country were to be established 
"Education Families" — groups of honest, indus- 
trious whites who were to have houses and farms, 
where the natives could observe their activities. And 
without any forcing it was expected that the red men, 
seeing the superior advantages of civilization, would 
be themselves gradually transformed.^^® 

To the north and east of Fort Snelling was the 
home of the Chippewa or Ojibway Indians — ex- 
tending from the Mississippi to the Great Lakes. To 
the west, on the great prairies, the Dakota or Sioux 
Indians lived and hunted. The veteran missionary, 
S. W. Pond, estimated that the five bands of Sioux, 
which most often came into direct touch with the gov- 
ernment at Fort Snelling, numbered in 1834, seven 
thousand, and wandered over southern Minnesota 
and South Dakota, near the lakes of Big Stone and 
Traverse."^ Major Taliaferro reported in 1834 that 
the number of Indians in his agency was 6721, and 
that they extended as far as the Sheyenne fork of the 
Red River."^ To one man, the agent, was given the 

103 



104 OLD FORT SNELLING 

task of civilizing these thousands of Sioux. While 
it was for this tribe that the agency at Fort Snelling 
was established, yet the Chippewas often frequented 
its headquarters. One hundred and seventy war- 
riors of these northern Indians arrived at the 
agent's house on the evening of August 4, 1830.^'" 
The presence of these red men more than doubled 
the work of the agent, because there was now the 
difficulty of keeping peace between two warring 
tribes. 

Indian life was not so worthless as sometimes pic- 
tured. It is true that one could see laziness and 
poverty during the months of January and Febru- 
ary, if he came upon an Indian village pitched near 
a wooded slope and above a frozen stream. There 
could be seen the smoke curling from the ding}^ 
tepee, the women dragging home wood for the ever- 
diminishing pile outside the door, and a few of the 
hardier men fishing through holes in the ice. About 
the tepee the snow was banked, and within the air 
was warm and heavy from the open fire and the long- 
pipes of the reclining braves, who gambled with their 
neighbors at the game of ''the shot and the mitten". 

Thus through the two stormy months the Indians 
frittered away the time, eating their corn and wild 
rice seasoned with tallow. But when the first thaws 
of spring caused the sap in the maple trees to run, 
and when some of the more venturesome came back 
from a winter visit to the trading house with the 
word that the trader was waiting for skins in return 
for the blankets and ammunition he had given them 



THE FORT AND INDIAN LIFE 105 

the preceding fall, the village divided — part going 
to the sugar bush, and part going to the prairie lakes 
and swamps for muskrats. In May they returned 
on the swollen streams with heavily freighted canoes 
to their villages of bark houses. During the summer 
there were many tasks — blue berries to be gathered 
in the woods, canoes to be built, tepees to be re- 
paired, turnips to be dug, and pipestone to be 
brought from the far distant quarry. All through 
the hot months the women toiled in the corn fields; 
and when the corn was in the milk, all the village 
children screamed and waved their arms to frighten 
away the blackbirds. When the harvest had been 
carefully placed in bark barrels and buried, part of 
the village had already left to hunt the fox or gather 
wild rice along the lakes and cranberries in the 
marshes. 

And now came October and the deer hunt. There 
were only the extremely old people and the invalids 
to wave good-bye as the procession set out over the 
prairie — old men who could scarcely walk, bands of 
shouting children, hunters already on the alert, wo- 
men with their bundles, and horses and dogs drag- 
ging on two poles the provisions and the skins of the 
tepees. For more than two months the program 
was the same: the march through the drifts and 
across the icy rivers, the morning council a])out a 
blazing fire before scattering over the prairie, and 
the triumphal return of the successful hunter at 
evening with the carcass of a bear, deer, or elk, 
across his shoulders and his name shouted throuarh 



106 OLD FORT SMELLING 

the camp by the children gathered to welcome him. 
By January they were all back again at their vil- 
lages. ^^° 

It was this scheme of life which was to be gradu- 
ally transformed. There were, of course, variations 
when war parties crept against the Chippewas, when 
drunken debaucheries resulted from a keg of whiskey 
that had escaped the vigilant eyes of the soldiers, 
and when migrations to the Canadian posts were 
prompted by the hope that there they could obtain 
enough supplies to support them without work and 
that there they could enjoy some ceremony to break 
the monotony of life. But these migrations were 
few on the part of the Sioux : they could enjoy coun- 
cils just as good near home. 

On the occasion of a visit to Old Fort Snelling and 
the agency near by, the authorities were careful to 
see that there was a due amount of ceremony. Prob- 
ably a whole band of Indians would come down from 
the headwaters of the Minnesota River. Their 
chiefs and braves gathered in the log Council Hall, 
and there took place the scene so picturesquely des- 
cribed by the eccentric traveller, J. C. Beltrami. 

''The council-hall is, as it ought to be, a great 
room built of trunks of trees. The flag of the United 
States waves in the centre, surrounded by English 
colours, and medals hung to the walls. They are 
presented by the Indians to their Father, the agent, 
as a proof that they abjure all cabal or alliance A\T.th 
the English. Pipes, or calumets and other little In- 
dian presents, offered by the various tribes as pled- 



THE FORT AND INDIAN LIFE 107 

ges of their friendship, decorate the walls and give 
a remarkable and characteristic air to the room." 
The dignitaries of the post are seated about a table 
and the braves recline upon the ground during the 
council. 

' ' The seance opens with a speech of the chief, who 
rises and addresses the agent. He generally begins 
with the Great Spirit, or the sun, or the moon 'whose 
purity is equalled by that of his own heart,' &c. &c. 
always finishing with a petition for presents; — 
whiskey is sure to find honourable mention : these are 
what English lawyers call the common counts.^ ^^^^ 

After the reply of the agent the peace pipe was 
solemnly passed from one to another, and the coun- 
cil ended with the distribution of presents. These 
presents were of tobacco, gunpow^der, vermilion, 
pipes, kettles, blankets, snuff-boxes, armbands, look- 
ing-glasses, horse bells, jews '-harps, ivory combs, 
and shawls. ^^^ Not the least popular of these were 
the jews '-harps, which had their uses — in spite of 
the sarcastic invective delivered against them by 
Senator Benton in 1822 when the abolition of the 
Factory System was being considered. ' ' They were 
innocent", observed the Senator, "and on that ac- 
count precisely adapted to the purposes of the su- 
perintendent, in reclaiming the savage from the 
hunter state. The first state after that, in the road 
to refined life, is the pastoral, and without music the 
tawny-colored Corydons and the red-skinned Ama- 
ryllises, ' recuhans suh tegmine fagi, ' upon the banks 
of the Missouri and Mississippi, could make no 



108 OLD FORT SNELLING 

progress in the delightful business of love and senti- 
ment. ' ' "*^ 

These councils were frequent occurrences, and 
their importance lies in the fact that through them 
certain principles could be instilled into the minds 
of the natives under the most favorable circum- 
stances. The words spoken by the agent on these 
occasions had probably as much effect in con- 
trolling the Indians as a like number of bullets 
would have had. Major Taliaferro has recorded 
one of the orations which he delivered to his listen- 
ing wards. He referred to the presence of the Great 
Spirit, told of his long service among them, eulogized 
their departed elders — ''the old branches which 
have fallen from the Trunk of the old oak of your 
Nation" — and then inserted a few w^ise admonitions 
as to the futility of their wars with the Chippewas. 

"Your Great Father", he said, "has had much to 
do with war — but his heart is changed for peace & 
he wishes all his red children as well as his white 
ones to follow his good example — he knows this 
course to be best for all — we should endeavor to 
please him — for by doing so we shall please the 
Great Spirit also — You will see your children grow- 
ing up around you and your wives smiling as you 
approach from your days hunt." 

The speech ended with the announcement of the 
coming of ' ' something good from below ' ' and an ap- 
proaching visit to the village of the Red Head.^^^* 

During these meetings at the agency the sound of 
the fort's cannon and the sight of the well-uniformed 



THE FORT AND INDIAN LIFE 109 

guards impressed the Indians even more than did 
the words of the agent. There they became ac- 
quainted with white men other than traders, and 
when exploring and scientific expeditions came over 
the plains with a guard of soldiers, they were wise 
enough not to interfere. These visits in themselves 
were pleasant, and the rations of bread and pork 
offered an agreeable respite from their usual fare.^^^ 

At the time of the treaty of Prairie du Chien in 
1825 one ration consisted of one pound of bread or 
one pint of corn and either one pound of beef or 
three-quarters of a pound of pork. This may be 
taken as a fair standard of the kind of rations issued 
at the agency.^^^ It was during the winter months 
especially when starvation or suffering would other- 
wise result that this aid was given to the Indians. 
During the summer when other means of subsistence 
were present, all appeals for food were refused.-" 
This custom of granting rations was formally incor- 
porated in the law of June 30, 1834, with the only 
restriction that they were to be given only if 'Hhey 
can be spared from the army provisions without in- 
jury to the service ".^^® 

The condition of the tribes was often appalling, 
and many deaths would have occurred without this 
aid. At one time Taliaferro wrote that ''400 In- 
dians encamped near the Agency — many from a dis- 
tance and in a starving condition. ' ' ^^^ Often he had 
to take from his own private funds, after he had 
drawn all he could from the public stores.^''" The 
winter of 1842-1843 was particularly severe. On the 



110 OLD FORT SNELLING 

first of November the ground was covered with snow 
which as late as April still lay from two to two and 
a half feet deep. No hunting was possible because 
of the drifts, and fishing through the ice was imprac- 
ticable, the wind blowing the holes full of snow as 
soon as they were cut. The Indians living about 
Lac qui Parle, about two hundred miles up the Min- 
nesota River, came with the missionary Dr. Thomas 
Williamson to winter on the site of old Camp Cold 
Water, knowing that only from the fort could they 
obtain relief. 

Everything that was possible was done. Blankets, 
guns, and ammunition to the value of $2500 were 
granted the Indians. Indeed, so manj^ provisions 
were distributed that on April 3rd it was computed 
that there was only enough left to supply the garri- 
son until the opening of navigation. The officers 
and soldiers saved all the remains from the tables 
and once a day the squaws and children were allowed 
to enter and receive these crumbs. The Indians who 
were away from the post were not neglected. Sixty 
bushels of corn and several barrels of pork were fur- 
nished by Major Dearborn to Mr. H. H. Sibley who 
sent them to destitute Indians on the Minnesota 
River. Still there was much suffering, for not 
enough food could be spared to satisfy all. Before 
spring arrived many of the Indians lived upon a 
syrup made of hickory chips and the boiled bark of 
the bitter sweet. All became greatly emaciated and 
some were unable to walk.^''^ 

From time to time a solitarv Indian on a business 



THE FORT AND INDIAN LIFE 111 

visit to the trader would drop in to chat with the 
^'Father". Here he could make any complaints 
which he had to offer and be sure of a sympathetic 
if not satisfactory answer. "I have had more than 
fourteen hundred Indians on visits from all Sections 
of this Agency during the Month past — and all mth 
Grieveances of Some Sort to redress", wrote Talia- 
ferro on June 30, 1838.^^- In all matters concerning 
lands, hunting, treaties, annuities, and the like, the 
Indian looked only to the agent for advice or ex- 
planation. Instigated by the traders, many of whom 
were hostile to him, the Indians considered him re- 
sponsible for the acts of the soldiers.^^^ If a pro- 
vision of a treaty was not carried out, the Indians 
thought it w^as Taliaferro's fault ''for they know 
nothing of Congress or of their Multifarious and 
protracted debates, and proceedings."^^* 

A personal present was due the visitor at these 
' * shake hands ' ' occasions. If he were a headman or 
a brave he received a pound of powder, two pounds 
of lead, a fish line, a knife, four fish hooks, and six 
plugs of tobacco. If he were "any respectable In- 
dividual ' ' he was sure of a knife, four fish hooks, and 
six plugs of tobacco. ^^^ These individual visits did 
much to acquaint the natives personally with the 
agent, in the same way that the council impressed 
them w^th the agent's great power. 

But even more appreciated was the help offered in 
time of sickness. On December 25, 1830, Taliaferro 
records in his diary: "I rode up the SPeters to 
See an Indian .... Doctor Wood went up 



112 OLD FORT SNELLING 

also — I dressed her wound — I Sent my Interpreter 
up Avitli other restoratives — she being delerious." "^ 
On Saturday, June 28, 1834, there came to him a 
brave saying that both his son and daughter were ill. 
''Sent a message to Doct Jarvis to call & see the 
girl." The Sioux boy died two days later. But 
there the ministration did not end. To the mourn- 
ers were given cotton and calico, or a blanket in 
order that the body might be decently covered.-^^ 

The dread scourge of smallpox raged in the 
vicinity of Fort Snelling during the summer of 1832. 
Two Indians coming from the Missouri River were 
suffering from violent attacks. Immediately the dis- 
ease spread. But Dr. Wood, the post's physician, 
was called upon by Major Taliaferro and at the end 
of five days three hundred and thirty Sioux had been 
vaccinated. It is interesting to notice that in case 
the Indians came to the agency Dr. Wood received 
six dollars for every hundred he treated, but if he 
went to their villages he received six dollars per 
day.=^'' 

Besides these services the visits to the fort offered 
direct opportunity for the giving of tangible evi- 
dence of American supremacy. The English gov- 
ernment had lavishly distributed signs of authority. 
During the first two years of his term of service, 
Taliaferro collected no less than thirty-six medals of 
George the Third, tAventy-eight British flags, and 
eighteen gorgets. -^^ Some of these were presented 
to the agent as direct evidence of submission to 
American authority. In 1820 two employees of the 



THE FORT AND INDIAN LIFE 113 



Missouri Fur Company were murdered on the Mis- 
souri River. The surrender of the murderers was 
demanded by Taliaferro, and while he was away the 
tribe came to Fort Snelling with one of the culprits 
and a hostage. Colonel Snelling, then acting as 
agent, described the scene in a letter. 

''These unfortunate wretches were delivered up 
last evening with a great deal of ceremony, & I as- 
sure you with affecting solemnity ; the guards being 
first put under arms, they formed a procession in 
the road bej^ond the bake house ; in front marched a 
Sussitong bearing a British flag, next came the Mur- 
derer & the devoted chief, their arms pinioned & 
large splinters of wood thrust through them above 
the elbows, intended as I understood to show us that 
they did not fear pain & were not afraid to die. the 
Murderer wore a large British medal suspended to 
his neck & both of the prisoners bore offerings of 
skins, &c. in their hands, last came the chiefs of the 
Sussitongs, in this order they moved, the prisoners 
singing their death song & the Sussitongs joining in 
chorus until they arrived in front of the guard house 
where a fire being previously prepared, the British 
flag was burnt, and the medal worn by the murderer 
given up. ' ' ^°" 

In return for these greatly coveted signs of re- 
spect the agent delivered to the most prominent 
chiefs the medals and certificates of the United 
States. And thus by flattering the leaders control 
over the Indians was assured. What chief w^as not 
proud to carry with him this certificate, even if he 



114 OLD FORT SNELLING 

could not read it himself? ''The bearer The Whole 
in the day is a respectable Man, and wears a Seccond 
Size Monroe Medal Presented to him for his uniform 
Good Conduct and great attachment to the United 
States — His Residence is at Sandy Lake Law Talia- 
ferro Indian Agent at St. Peters ' '.^°' 

But the memory of the days of English rule was 
still alive, the suggestion being made to the govern- 
ment that ''the gordgets would be More Acceptable 
were they to be fashioned after those introduced 
formerly by the British Government — with the dif- 
ference only of the Eagle engraved upon each."^"^ 
To counteract this feeling it was necessary that the 
government should be lavish in the distribution of 
presents. British influence and example, wrote 
Taliaferro to Clark in 1831, were not yet "fairly 
purged of their baneful effects ' '.^°^ Even as late as 

1834 a few extracts from the reports of Major Bliss 
indicate that this feeling was still noticeable. ' ' The 
Sioux Indians expecting and favourable to an Eng- 
lish war with the U. States", he wrote in April. 
The next month he reported ' ' Sioux and Chippewas 
pacific but dissatisfied with U. States", and in July 

1835 he informed headquarters that ' ' the Chippewas 
& Sioux are dissatisfied & both exhibit symptoms of 
hostility to the U. States & to each other. The 
Sioux the most decided. ' ' ^°* 

English visitors at a much later period congratu- 
lated their government because the Indians, as they 
said, still had a greater fondness for the British than 
for the Americans. ^°^ Except, however, along the 



THE FORT AND INDIAN LIFE 115 



border, among the tribes outside of the sphere of the 
agent at Fort Snelling, this feeling manifested itself 
only as a sentiment which could lead to trouble if a 
break between the two nations should occur. 

To emphasize the power of the Nation, the agent 
brought to Washington in 1824, and again in 1837, 
delegations of chiefs.^'"' On these occasions they 
were taken to the largest and busiest cities, enter- 
tained in the most delightful manner, and shown the 
most impressive sights. As crowds were always 
drawn together to see the Indians, the latter received 
a lasting opinion as to the numbers of the Amer- 
icans.^"^ Previously the Sioux bands had thought 
that if ever they should unite their forces, they 
would be able to win in a war against all the whites ; 
but now they were disillusioned.^"^ 

Undoubtedly the Indians were pleased with their 
journey. ''Since the treaty was signed", stated a 
contemporary newspaper, "each of them has re- 
ceived a coat, hat, blanket, leggins, epaulettes, bands, 
and scarfs, and w^hen dressed in full uniform, they 
exhibit more lively pleasure than would have been 
expected from the apathy of Indian character."^'"' 
The magnificence which they had seen was described 
amid the squalor of their home villages. "The ef- 
fect produced by the visit of their chiefs to Wash- 
ington is wonderful, since their return, the power, 
wealth, and numbers of the American people have 
been their constant themes, many of their stories 
approach so near the marvellous as to be discredited, 
such for example is the account of casting a cannon 



116 OLD FORT SNELLING 

which they witnessed, and the magnitude of our 
ships. Old hlaclc dog shakes his head & says 'all 
travellers are liars '. ' ' ^'° The memory of these trips 
lingered long. Little Crow came to call upon the 
agent in 1831. "The old chief left much delighted 
with his reception and my Talk — he departed sing- 
ing the song which was often repeated when on his 
trip to Washington City in 1824."^^^ 

The Indians touched by these relations with the 
fort were not only its immediate neighbors. The 
surrender of murderers from the tribes on the Mis- 
souri has been noted. On March 11, 1831, Talia- 
ferro wrote that "I observe Indians from the Mis- 
souri & various sections of the Sioux country. "^^" 
During the entire winter of 1831, a party of Missouri 
Eiver Indians encamped about Fort Snelling.^^' 
The Indians on the prairies were wide travellers. 
' ' There are a good many Indians about here ' ', says 
a letter from Lac qui Parle. "There have arrived 
120 lodges of Missouri at Lake Traverse and 200 
lodges at James Eiver."'" By this continual 
movement, the influence of Fort Snelling was en- 
larged. 

How great was this influence? No one has con- 
tradicted the statement of Mr. Taliaferro that "it 
is due the Sioux of your territory to record one fact 
as to them, and that is, from the commencement of 
our agency to its close, our frontier pioneers were 
never even molested in their homes, nor did they 
shed one drop of American blood ".^^^ It was when 
this frontier encroached on their lands that hostility 



THE FORT AND INDIAN LIFE 117 

broke out. If the Indians had been left in peace by 
covetous land-seekers, their civilization might in 
time have been accomplished. 

There was practically no hostility manifested 
against the garrison by the surrounding Indians. 
In January, 1822, Colonel McNeil, who was in com- 
mand at Fort Dearborn, received word from John 
Kinzie, the pioneer Chicago trader, that the Sioux 
and Fox Indians were planning an attack on Fort 
Snelling. Lieutenant James Webb immediately vol- 
unteered to bring the news to Fort Armstrong on 
Rock Island, from whence it could be sent to the 
upper post. After a journey rendered terrible by 
the extreme cold and the danger from hostile In- 
dians, he was successful in reaching Fort Arm- 
strong.^^*' 

In due time the letter was delivered to Colonel 
Snelling. ''When I first received Col McNeils let- 
ter," he wrote later, "I was disposed to smile at the 
absurdity of connecting the Sioux & Foxes, in a de- 
sign to attack this post". But he later found out 
that the Foxes had sent wampum and tobacco to the 
bands of Wabasha and Little Crow, asking them not 
to stand in the way of any movements they might 
make. Wabasha accepted the wampum but Little 
Crow came to the fort to make known the danger. 
The vagueness of the rumors, however, made it im- 
possible to act, and later developments showed that 
there was no truth in the report — at least no vio- 
lence was attempted.^" 

Fear of the strength of the fort prevented hostil- 



118 OLD FORT SNELLING 

ities. It was the Indian fashion to attack by am- 
bush. They did not have the patience to endure a 
protracted siege. The Americans did not belittle 
the strength of the military works. Little Thunder 
and White Head, two Indians who had escaped from 
the jail at Mackinac by cutting through the log walls, 
met an American, George Johnson, at Lac du Flam- 
beau. They were very inquisitive about the strength 
of Fort Snelling and the number of Americans sta- 
tioned there. Regarding this incident the white man 
wrote : "I answered saying, that the fort at River 
St. Peters was as strong as Quebec, and more Amer- 
icans there than in any other post. ' ' ^^* 

The government did not adopt Dr. Morse's plan 
for civilizing the Indians, but the agent tried to 
carry out the policy therein suggested. The colony 
at Eatonville, located on Lake Calhoun, and the In- 
dian schools soon passed into the hands of the mis- 
sionaries. After the making of treaties a black- 
smith shop was added to the agency. In line with 
his policy of providing for all classes of Indians, 
Taliaferro urged the erection of an orphan asylum 
where "all poor blind, and helpless women" would 
also be accommodated. ^^^ 

If time had been given doubtless a new form of 
Indian life would have arisen about the fort ; but the 
coming of the land-seekers destroyed the plan. The 
failure was to result in a great massacre in 1862. 
This much at least can be said for Old Fort Snelling ; 
it kept the Indians friendly while the foundations of 
American life were being laid in the Northwest. 



VIII 
THE SIOUX-CHIPPEWA FEUDS 

One of the reasons given for the building of Fort 
Snelling was that it would prevent the disastrous 
wars existing between the Sioux and Chippewa In- 
dians. ^^° Beginning so far in the past that no cause 
could be ascribed for the hostility, each encounter 
was in itself both the result of preceding conflicts and 
the excuse for further warfare. Pierre Esprit de 
Radisson, who was the first writer to leave an 
account of the Chippewas, said that even at the 
time of his visit in about 1660 they were carrying- 
on ''a cruell warre against the Nadoueserononis 
[Sioux]." ^^^ 

Lurking in the bushes to waylay their enemies on 
the woodland paths, hiding on the river banks to 
intercept hostile canoes, pretending peace and enjoy- 
ing hospitality in order to have an opportunity for 
treachery were the military tactics of the Sioux and 
Chippewa warriors. To prevent such warfare, a 
military post was almost powerless. In fact, so in- 
sidious was the hostility that even the very grounds 
of Fort Snelling were the scene of bloody encounters. 

Attempts were made to keep the Chippewas away 
from Fort Snelling by attaching them to the agency 
of H. R. Schoolcraft at Sault Ste. Marie.=^-^ But the 

119 



120 OLD FORT SNELLING 

distance was so great and the route so difficult that 
the Chippewas did not make the journey to consult 
that agent. On the other hand, Fort Snelling was so 
close, and the Mississippi such a natural outlet from 
their country, that a trader declared that ''you 
might as well try to Stop the Water in the Missis- 
sippi from going to St Louis, as attempt to keep the 
Chippeway Indians from St Peters. ' ' ^^^ 

During the last days of the month of May, 1827, 
Flat Mouth, chief of the Sandy Lake band of Chip- 
pewa Indians was encamped near Fort Snelling. A 
number of men, women, and children were with him, 
bringing maple sugar, which they had gathered in 
the northern woods during the winter, and other 
articles to sell to the garrison. Major Taliaferro 
was away at the time, but on May 24th the steamboat 
** Pilot" landed him safely at Fort Snelling. To 
welcome their ''Father" home, and perchance to see 
if he had any presents or promises for them, a large 
number of Sioux came from their villages to the fort, 
as was usual on such occasions. The agent took the 
opportunity presented by the presence of both Sioux 
and Chippewas to deliberate with them in regard to 
peace, and also to request the Chippewas not to visit 
Fort Snelling again, in accordance with instructions 
which he had received from the Indian Department. 
To this Flat Mouth replied sorrowfully: "I feel 
myself now like a Dog driven away from your door 
to find another — I am ashamed of this — but I know 
you are doing this not by your wish. " ^'* 

The twenty-eighth day of the month proved the 



THE SIOUX-CHIPPEWA FUEDS 121 

value of the advice Major Taliaferro had given. 
Several Sioux came to visit at a Chippewa lodge 
pitched directly under and in front of the agency 
house on the flats that border the Minnesota Eiver. 
The guns of the fort could easily have been trained 
upon the spot. There was feasting and friendly 
revelry at the lodge that afternoon and evening. 
Meat, corn, and sugar were served in wooden plat- 
ters ; a dog was roasted and eaten. The peace pipe 
was smoked, and the conversation was peaceful re- 
garding exploits in the hunt and the chase. 

At nine o'clock when the party broke up, as the 
Chippewas were calling friendly good-byes to the 
departing Sioux who had advanced a few steps, the 
latter turned and fired into the midst of the unsus- 
pecting inhabitants of the tepee. There was instant 
confusion. With a shout of triumph the Sioux ran 
off. The sentinel on the hill above heard the shots 
and cries and called for the guard. In a few mo- 
ments there was at the gate of the fort a crowd of 
panic-stricken Chippewas carrying their wounded 
and crying for protection. Six men, one woman, 
and a girl about eight years old were handed over to 
the surgeon of the post, Doctor McMahon. 

Immediately Major Taliaferro notified the Sioux 
that they had insulted the flag that waved over the 
land, and that ample satisfaction must be made to 
the Chippewas who had been treated in such a cow- 
ardly manner. In council with the agent. Strong 
Earth, a chief of the Chippewas, complained of the 
lack of protection: ''Father: You know that two 



122 OLD FORT SNELLING 

Summers ago we attended a Great Council at Prairie 
du Chien, when by the advice of Our White Friends, 
we made Peace with the Sioux — We were then told, 
that the Americans would Guarantee our Safety 
under their Flags — We have Come here under that 
Assurance. But Father, look at Your Floor it is 
stained with the blood of our people shed while un- 
der Your Walls. If you are great and powerful why 
do You not protect us? If Not, of what use are 
Your Soldiers?"'-" 

On the morning following the massacre a large 
body of Sioux — estimated at about three hundred 
and fifty — appeared on the prairie west of the fort. 
Brevet Major Fowle was ordered to march against 
them with two companies. Upon his appearance 
they fled, but he follow^ed and was successful in cap- 
turing some of them. Nine Sioux — one of whom 
Major Taliaferro reports was given up volun- 
tarily — were delivered up to the Chippewas. Iden- 
tifying two of these as being among the murderers, 
they requested permission to execute them immedi- 
ately. 

Upon the broad prairie the two prisoners were 
given their freedom. They were told to run, and 
when a few paces away the Chippewa warriors fired, 
and the Sioux fell dead. Then followed a hideous 
scene which a spectator described many years later. 
''The bodies, all warm and limp, are dragged to the 
brow of the hill. Men who at the sight of blood, 
become almost fiends, tear off the reeking scalps and 
hand them to the chief, who hangs them around liis 



THE SIOUX-CHIPPEWA FUEDS 123 

neck. Women and children with tomahawks and 
knives cut deep gashes in the poor dead bodies, and 
scooping up the hot blood with their hands, eagerly 
drink it; then, grown frantic, they dance, and yell, 
and sing their horrid scalp songs, recounting deeds of 
valor on the part of their brave men, and telling off 
the Sioux scalps, taken in different battles, until 
tired and satiated at last with their horrid feast, 
they leave the mutilated bodies — festering in the 
sun. "^-'^ At evening the bodies were throwm over 
the cliif into the river below. 

On the morning of the thirty-first the Sioux deliv- 
ered up to the Chippewas two others who, they 
claimed, had been the principal men in the atfair. 
If the Chippewas did not shoot them, they said, they 
would do it themselves, as trouble had come to their 
nation on their account. But the Chippewas were 
willing. 

About this second execution there has grown up 
an interesting story. One of the offenders, Toopun- 
kali Zeze, was a favorite among the children of the 
fort. Tall and handsome and athletic and brave, he 
was the ideal of Indian manhood. The other, called 
the Split Upper Lip, was well know^n as a thief, and 
was as much detested as his companion was re- 
spected. He cried and begged for his life, saying 
that his gun had missed fire — he had killed no one. 
The other calmly distributed his clothes among his 
friends, upbraiding his companion for his cowardice. 
''You lie, dog. Coward, old woman, you know that 
you lie. You know that you are as guilty as I am. 



124 OLD FORT SNELLING 

Hold your peace and die like a man — die like me." 
The two were brought out upon the prairie. 
Again the thirty yards were allowed ; again the Chip- 
pewa guns were fired. For once it seemed that this 
Indian punishment of ''running the gantlet" would 
lose a victim. For Toopunkah Zeze was still run- 
ning. The bullet had cut the rope that bound him to 
his falling companion. With new hope he leaped 
forward. There was a shout of triumph from a 
group of Sioux hidden in the bushes; and the chil- 
dren of the fort, who had climbed upon the buildings 
to view the bloody scene from afar, clapped their 
hands. But the Chippewas were cool in their ven- 
geance. Guns were reloaded and deliberate aim 
taken. The flints struck, and Toopunkah Zeze, now 
a hundred and fifty yards away and a second's dis- 
tance from a place where the straggling groves of 
the prairie offered life, fell dead. Two more bodies 
were thrown over the precipice into the river.^" 

For ten years the hostility continued, but the en- 
virons of the fort were sacred places. An effective 
lesson had been taught in 1827. But on August 2, 
1838, Hole-in-the-Day, a Chippewa chief, and five of 
his band came to Fort Snelling on a visit. That 
spring there had been a treacherous massacre by 
Hole-in-the-Day at a Sioux camp. It was true, as 
he said in the poetic simplicity of Indian style: 
''You See I cannot keep my face Clean — as fast as 
it is Washed — I am Compelled to black it Again. — 
but My heart towards you is the Same. — My 
Fathers Bones Sleep by your house — My Daughter 



THE SIOUX-CHIPPEWA FUEDS 125 

at the Falls Near the Grave of my Uncle — My Wife 
lies at the Mouth of Sauk River — and a few days 
past I buried My Son."'=^« 

On the following evening some Sioux of Mud Lake, 
hearing of the presence of the Chippewas, rode over 
to Baker 's trading house where the Chippewas were 
encamped. Major Taliaferro had heard of the de- 
parture of the war party and had hurried to the 
scene. Just as he arrived the Sioux fired upon their 
enemies, killing one outright and wounding another 
in the knee. All but one of the Chippewas had laid 
aside their guns, thinking that they were upon neu- 
tral ground. This one, seeing a Sioux in the act of 
scalping the fallen Chippewa, fired upon him and 
wounded him mortally. But aided by the dusk the 
wounded Sioux was able to run more than a mile be- 
fore he fell from loss of blood. 

The Chippewas were immediately brought into the 
fort for protection. On the next day Major Plymp- 
ton and the Indian agent called together the chiefs 
of the neighboring villages. There was a long coun- 
cil until Major Plympton broke it up by saying per- 
emptorily: ''It is unnecessary to talk much. I 
have demanded the guilty — they must be brought." 

At half past five that evening the Sioux were 
delivered up. Three brothers had been accused of 
being guilty of the murder. One of them could not 
be brought because he was dying of the wound re- 
ceived the evening before. Much ceremony attended 
the proceedings as the Indian mother led her sons to 
the officers saying: "Of seven sons three onlv are 



126 OLD FORT SNELLING 

left ; one of them is wounded, and soon will die, and 
if the two now given np are shot, my all is gone. 
I called on the head men to follow me to the Fort. I 
started with the prisoners, singing their death song, 
and have delivered them at the gate of the Fort. 
Have mercy on them for their youth and folly. ' ' "■'' 

Because of the attack which Hole-in-the-Day had 
made on the Sioux a short time before, Major 
Plympton decided not to execute the prisoners. 
They were turned over to their own people to be 
flogged in the presence of the officers. More humil- 
iating than death was their punishment. Their 
blankets, leggins, and breech-cloths were cut into 
small pieces, and finally the braves whipped them 
with long sticks while the women stood about cry- 
ing.^"" 

Although there was now a deep desire for revenge 
in each of the tribes, they manifested outward 
friendliness when they met at the fort. During the 
month of June, 1839, there came to Fort Snelling 
over twelve hundred Chippewas thinking that there 
they would be paid their annuities for the land they 
had ceded in 1837. There were two main groups — 
one which came down from the headwaters of the 
Mississippi, and the other which came up the river 
from the vicinity of the St. Croix. At the same time 
Sioux numbering eight hundred and seventy were 
encamped near the agency. This was considered an 
opportune time to conclude a peace, and so the long 
calumet with its mixture of tobacco and bark of the 
willow tree was smoked while friendlv athletic eon- 



THE SIOUX-CHIPPEWA FUEDS 127 

tests were held on the prairie. On July 1st the two 
parties of Chippew^as started for home. But in one 
of the bands were the two sons of the man who had 
been murdered the year before. In the evening be- 
fore beginning their homeward journey, they visited 
the graveyard of the fort to cry over the grave of 
their father. Here the thought of vengeance came 
to them, and morning found them hidden in the 
bushes near the trail that skirted the shore of Lake 
Harriet. The Badger, a Sioux warrior, was the first 
to pass that way as he went out in the early morning 
to hunt pigeons. A moment later he was shot and 
scalped. The murderers then hurried away and hid 
behind the water at Minnehaha Falls. 

A few hours later, when the news had spread 
throughout all the Sioux villages, two bands set out 
to take revenge upon the departing Chippew^as. The 
old men, the w^omen, and the children remained at 
home, eagerly awaiting the result of the coming 
l)attle and cutting their arms and legs with their 
knives in grief over the losses which they knew their 
bands would have to undergo. 

It happened that at that time the Right Reverend 
Mathias Loras, the first Bishop of Dubuque, was at 
Fort Snelling. He had been an interested spectator 
at the Sioux-Chippewa peace parleys, had watched 
the departure of the determined avengers, and now 
was anxiously awaiting the result of the conflict. 
On the morning of July 4th as he was praying at his 
altar for the prosperity of his country he was 
startled by the shrill notes of the Sioux death-song, 



128 OLD FORT SNELLING 

and gazing through the window saw a bloody throng, 
dancing about the long poles from which dangled 
scalps with parts of the skulls still attached. Two 
terrible struggles had taken place the day before. 
On the Rum River seventy Chippewa scalps had 
been taken, and on the banks of Lake St. Croix twen- 
ty-five more were obtained. In both cases the losses 
of the Sioux were smaller. These trophies were 
brought to the villages, where they were danced 
about nightly until the leaves began to fall in the 
autumn, when they were buried.^^^ 

These incidents which centered about Fort Snell- 
ing have led to the charge made against it, that in- 
stead of preventing the conflicts the fort intensified 
them. The fort was a convenient meeting place, it 
is argued, whither both parties resorted only to be- 
come involved in altercations and disputes which 
resulted in a flaring-up of old flames.^^^ But it must 
be remembered that the murders away from the fort 
were more numerous ; ^^^ and it is easier to recall the 
spectacular encounters which occurred at the fort, 
than the many occasions when the two tribes met 
peacefully as the guests of the officials. 

A military officer who was stationed there wrote : 
''At Fort Snelling I have seen the Sioux and Chip- 
peways in friendly converse, and passing their pipes 
in the most amicable manner when if they had met 
away from the post each would have been striving 
for the other's scalp. "^^* The Indian agent, whose 
success depended upon the continuation of peace, 
noted with pleasure these friendly gatherings. 



THE SIOUX-CHIPPEWA FUEDS 129 

''The Crane and the Hole in the Day — and other 
Chippeways at the Agency this day — Several Sissi- 
ton Sioux also at the Agency. ' ' ^^^ These visits were 
often protracted for several weeks without trouble. 
' ' Chippeways — a number of these people also at the 
agency — ^some have been here for nearly 30 days — 
fishing & liveing better & more independently than 
the Sioux. "^^-^ On the 29th and 30th of June, 1831, 
Chippewas to the number of one hundred and fifty 
met five villages of Sioux.^" 

Efforts to combat the evil were made in council 
with the Indians. ' ' Your wars with the Chippeways 
can never be of service to anyone", reasoned their 
' ' Father 'V for as fast as you destroy one — two or 
three more young men are ready to take the track 
of their deceased friends — The old people among 
you ought to know this — after the long wars be- 
tween you".^^* Most of the encounters took place 
either when the warriors were emboldened by liquor, 
or when the rival hunting parties met on the plains. 
The strict enforcement of the law of 1832 prohibiting 
the introduction of spirits had a tranquilizing effect 
in the country of the Chippewas. Indeed, the prin- 
cipal object of all efforts to suppress the liquor 
traffic was the prevention of inter-tribal wars.^^^ 

Constant watching of the hunting parties and ad- 
monition as to their conduct were among the duties 
of the agent. ''Sent my interpreter up the Missis- 
sippi among the Indians", he writes, "to see how 
they are progressing in their hunts and as to the 
present hunting grounds of the Chippeways." 



180 OLD FORT SXELLING 

Eight days later record is made of the fact that 'Hhe 
Rum River Chippeways left for their camp this 
morning — Sent word to their people to hunt on 
their own Lands & not by any Means to intrude upon 
the Soil of the Sioux." When the interpreter re- 
turned he reported that everything was quiet be- 
tween the two tribes. ^'*° The sending of ''runners" 
to the camps was a frequent occurrence during the 
winter of 1831, the region covered being eighty miles 
to the east and two hundred miles to the north.^" 

In the treaty of Prairie du Chien of 1825 a divid- 
ing line between the two tribes, beyond which neither 
should pass, was agreed upon.^*^ But this provision 
was for many years a dead letter. As long as the 
line was unsurveyed the natives could urge indef- 
initeness of territory as an excuse for murder and 
depredations — claiming that the other party was 
the trespasser. When Schoolcraft met the chiefs of 
the Chippewas in council at Leech Lake in 1832, the 
latter complained that the provisions of the treaty 
had not been carried out. ' ' The words of the Long- 
knives have passed through our forests as a rushing 
wind, but they have been words merely. They have 
only shaken the trees, but have not stopped to break 
them down, nor even to make the rough places 
smooth. ' ' ^^^ As a result Mr. Schoolcraft urged upon 
the Secretary of War the necessity of marking the 
line.^** 

Seven thousand dollars were appropriated by the 
act of June 26, 1834, for the purpose of running this 
line,^*^ and the next spring Major J. L. Bean, accom- 



THE SIOUX-CHIPPEWA FUEDS 131 

panied by Duncan Campbell, the Sioux interpreter 
of the agency, commenced the survey.^*'^ Later an 
escort of troops from Fort Snelling was sent him 
under the command of Lieutenant William Storer, 
with the result that the reduced garrison was unable 
to enforce order.^*^ When the survey had been com- 
pleted from the Chippewa River to Otter Tail Lake 
the return of the military escort put an end to the 
work, but the agent was of the opinion that the most 
important part had been marked.^*^ 

Efforts were made by the government to keep 
down the warlike spirit of the tribes. Thus, when 
Captain Gale allowed the Indians to come into the 
fort and dance the scalp dance in June, 1830, his act 
Avas disapproved of, and he had to stand trial. ^*^ 
Likewise peace conferences were fostered in order 
to put the seal of the authority of the government 
upon the transactions. During the winter of 1831 
truces were made between several of the bands 
through the efforts of Agent Taliaferro.^^° On 
August 2, 1843, a great gathering of the two nations 
was held at the fort, where a treaty of peace was 
drawn up under the auspices of the civil and military 
authorities. ^^^ During the first je&,r it was kept in- 
violate, "if we except two or three individual cases 
of outrage. "^^^ 

Even as late as June, 1850, an assemblage of both 
tribes was called together by Governor Ramsey. 
The Chippewas were encamped north of the fort on 
the bluff above the Mississippi. In front of them a 
detachment of infantry was drawn up. Within the 



132 OLD PORT SNELLING 

fort the artillery was in readiness. When word was 
sent to the Sioux that all things were ready, they 
approached, about three hundred strong, on horse- 
back, all armed and painted, their whoops mingling 
with the jingling of their arms, ornaments, and the 
bells of their horses. Making a feint as if to rush 
around the soldiers, they suddenly wheeled to one 
side and became quiet; while the Chippewas on the 
other side of the line of infantry continued to dance 
and wave their weapons. It was amid such stirring 
war-like scenes that attempts for peace were made.^^^ 

The earliest policy of the government had been to 
interfere as little as possible, and to allow retribu- 
tion to be made by one tribe on another. But such 
inactivity did not appeal to a red-blooded officer like 
Colonel Snelling, who wrote after the trouble in 
1827 : ''I have no hesitation in Saying that the Mil- 
itary on this frontier are useless for w^ant of discre- 
tionary power, and that if it is not intrusted to the 
Commander, Men of Straw with Wooden Guns and 
Swords will answer the purpose as well as a Regt 
of Infantry. " ^^* 

But later the policy was adopted of confining in 
the "Black Hole" of the fort any culprits who were 
captured. Thirteen of the Sioux who participated 
in a massacre at Apple River were imprisoned ; ^^^ 
and on one occasion Little Crow's band performed 
the scalp dance near Fort Snelling in commemora- 
tion of the murder of two Chippewas, while the mur- 
derers themselves languished in the fort.^^^ Prob- 
ably this method of dealing with the problem would 



THE SIOUX-CHIPPEWA FUEDS 133 

have been adopted earlier; but "the force at this 
point", wrote an officer, "has been too small to send 
a sufficient force to take the offenders, even should 
an order to that effect be issued."^" 

To determine how influential Fort Snelling was in 
maintaining order is impossible. As was the case 
with the liquor traffic, conditions were bad but could 
have been worse. From time to time there were 
events that indicated some success. After a peace 
had been concluded on the fourth of June, 1823, a 
small quarrel almost precipitated a general conflict 
on the sixth. Much to the chagrin of the Italian 
traveller, J. C. Beltrami, who was then a guest at the 
fort, the officers were successful in preventing blood- 
shed. "Everything conspired against my poor 
notes", he wrote, "I had already perched myself on 
an eminence for the purpose of enriching them with 
an Indian battle, and behold I have nothing to write 
but this miserable article !....! almost sus- 
pected that the savages were in a league with the 
gentlemen of the fort to disappoint me."^^® 

Peace was maintained during the winter of 1831 
on a line of three hundred and forty miles above and 
below Fort Snelling, and on one occasion there oc- 
curred the pleasant sight of Sioux and Chippewas 
departing in company for their hunting grounds on 
the Sauk River.^^'' Man-of-the-sky, who was chief 
of the Lake Calhoun band of Sioux, boasted that 
although he was only twenty-five years old at the 
time, he had already killed six Chippewas when Fort 
Snelling was erected, and added : ' ' Had it not been 



134 OLD FORT SMELLING 

for that I should have killed many more, or have 
been myself killed ere this."^*'" It is interesting to 
note in connection with the sacredness of these 
treaties the comment of Major Taliaferro that 
^'much more reliance is to be placed in the good faith 
of the Chippeways than in that of the Sioux. ' ' ^" 

These spasmodic successes at least acquainted the 
Indians with governmental restraint. A paragraph 
from the manuscript diary of the agent refutes the 
argument that Fort Snelling intensified rather than 
alleviated these struggles. "From January 1833 up 
to this day", wrote Taliaferro, "there has been no 
difficulty between the Sioux and Chippeways — I 
once kept these tribes at peace for two years and Six 
Months lacking 15 days. And this between the years 
1821 & 1825 till June 8th of the latter year. Colonel 
Robert Dickson remarked to me that Such a thing 
had never occurred before even when he headed the 
tribes against Us in the War of 1812."^*^- 



IX 

THE FUR TRADE 

The Indian trading-house which had been planned 
for the agency at Fort Snelling never materialized. 
Failure of the houses in operation to pay expenses 
and the opposition of the private traders led to their 
abolition in 1822. Thereafter, whatever attention 
the government directed toward the trade was influ- 
enced by the desire to prevent tampering with the 
allegiance of the Indians on the part of foreigners 
and to control this traffic which could contribute so 
much good or so much evil to the lives of the govern- 
ment's w^ards.^®^ 

With the Indian trade left to the private traders, 
great trading companies developed, since the fur 
trade easily lent itself to the corporation system. 
Cooperation in the marketing of furs and in the buy- 
ing of goods eliminated many of the difficulties which 
a single individual would meet. The American Fur 
Company, so long guided by John Jacob Astor, had 
a practical monopoly of the trade during the time 
that Old Fort Snelling was in existence. Mendota 
was the headquarters of a vast region which ex- 
tended from the Mississippi to the headwaters of 
the streams flowing into the Missouri. At various 
places throughout this territory were trading posts 

135 



136 OLD FORT SNELLING 

called "forts", although they consisted of no more 
than a few huts within a stockade. These were all 
subsidiary to the post at Mendota. 

Goods for the Indian trade were much the same as 
those given as presents by the government officials — 
blankets, trinkets, tobacco, knives, and the like. 
These goods were sent in great Mackinac boats from 
the East to be distributed among the posts. Each 
Indian hunter received on credit goods valued at 
forty or fifty dollars in payment for which he 
pledged the spoils of his winter's hunt. If the trad- 
er did not go with his band, he visited them occasion- 
ally or sent his engages to see that they were hunting 
and that no other trader was tampering with them to 
secure their furs. In the spring the Indian would 
deliver furs valued at twice the amount of the goods 
received. The trading company's profit was, ac- 
cordingly, about one hundred per cent. To carry 
out the details of the traffic there grew up w^ithin the 
company a complicated system of factors, clerks, 
voyageurs, and hivernants.^*'* 

With the entire system of the fur trade the mili- 
tary officials had little to do except in the matter of 
regulation. Not much militar}^ protection was nec- 
essary as the Indian looked upon the trader more as 
a friend than an enemy. ^'^^ Care in respect to the 
character of the men engaged and supervision of the 
method of carrying on trade were the two things nec- 
essary. According to the act of March 30, 1802, 
which was supplemented by the acts of April 29, 
1816, and June 30, 1834, no one could carry on trade 



THE FUR TRADE 137 



with the Indians without obtaining a license from an 
Indian agent, which was subject to revocation by the 
superintendent of the district.^^® 

Many were the problems which Major Taliaferro 
was obliged to consider when he granted a license. 
A license w^as valid for trade only at a certain place 
and among a certain tribe. The trader must be an 
American citizen. He w^as not allowed to carry with 
him any insignia of a foreign power. An invoice of 
his goods was presented to the agent, who had to 
certify to its correctness. Liquor was prohibited, 
and the trader was responsible for the conduct of all 
the members of his party in this matter. To guar- 
antee the fulfillment of all these requirements, bond 
had to be given at the time of obtaining the per- 
mit.^" 

To examine all the applicants, to keep in touch 
with them in the field, and to obtain the truth in re- 
gard to their conduct was enough to keep both agent 
and officers at Fort Snelling busy. In 1826 twenty- 
five licenses were granted ; in 1827, eleven ; in 1830, 
thirteen; and in 1831, fourteen.^^* The amount of 
this trade was very large, as is indicated by the case 
of Mr. Faribault who traded on the Cannon River. 
One year he marketed 50 buffalo-robes, 39,080 musk- 
rats, 2050 pounds of deer skins, 125 pounds of bea- 
ver, 130 martin, 1100 mink, 663 raccoons, 331 otter, 
25 lynx, and 5 foxes. ^''^ 

There was a great deal of vagueness as to the ap- 
plication of the trade laws — *'a mist of uncertainty" 
as Taliaferro called it.^^° Governor Cass of Mich- 



138 OLD FORT SNELLING 

igan Territory allowed foreigners to enter into ex- 
peditions as interpreters or boatmen, who upon 
entering the wilderness took active charge of the 
crew and all operations.^" As far as Fort Snelling 
was concerned there was little call for the ejection 
of foreigners by force. In 1833 it was rumored that 
a foreigner was trading on the Sheyenne River — a 
tributary of the Red River. But with the despatch 
of a company of troops and the rumor of their ap- 
proach, the culprit immediately decamped.^'^ 

The building of the fort was in itself enough to 
impress British subjects with the firmness of the 
United States government. Joseph Renville, Ken- 
neth McKenzie, and William Laidlaw, former em- 
ployees of the English companies, in 1822 organized 
the Columbia Fur Company, and obtained a license 
from Major Taliaferro. In five years they had posts 
from Green Bay to the Missouri River, with their 
headquarters at Land's End, a short distance up the 
Minnesota River from Fort Snelling. But in 1827 a 
union with the American Fur Company was brought 
about.^'^ 

Traders licensed by the agent at Fort Snelling 
covered the territory as far west as the Missouri 
River. No post could be established without his ap- 
proval ; and he even attempted to regulate the form 
in which the establishment should be built.^'* On 
the whole, cooperation between the factors of the fur 
companies and the officials at the post was desired 
by both parties. The most notable disagreement is 
that which existed between Alexis Bailly, the chief 



THE FUR TRADE 139 

factor at Mendota, and Major Taliaferro. This dis- 
agreement continued until September 15, 1834, when 
the agent reported that he had refused to allow 
Bailly to hold further intercourse with the natives, 
"not only in Consequence of his bad tongue, but on 
account also of his frequent Violations of the inter- 
course laws ' '. In this action he was seconded by the 
authorities of the fur company, who sent Mr. H. H. 
Sibley to fill Mr. Bailly 's place."' ^ The pleasant rela- 
tions which existed between Mr. Sibley and all the 
government officials — civil and military — is one of 
the charming chapters in the history of the fort.^^*' 

Intimately connected with the fur trade was the 
liquor traffic. Not that the traders were always re- 
sponsible for the introduction of the tabooed com- 
modity, but they were connected with it to such an 
extent as to be always under suspicion. Nor was the 
attitude of the government consistent. When Pike 
ascended the Mississippi he spoke of the evil effects 
of rum to the chiefs who ceded to the United States 
the military reservation; but the explorer closed 
with the words: "before my departure I will give 
you some liquor to clear your throats.""^ Even 
Taliaferro, foe that he was of liquor, knew its power. 
When a neighboring chief and thirty of his men vis- 
ited the agency, he recorded: "After council — 
gave him 30 Rats Bread — 50 Eats Pork — 10 lbs 
Tobacco — 3 gallons of whiskey — the last for good 
Conduct towards the Chippeways. ' ' ^^^ 

Liquor was an important asset in carrying on the 
fur trade. The object was to please the red man. 



140 OLD FORT SNELLING 

not to stupefy him to such an extent that he could be 
swindled. With the growth of the great companies 
and the influx of numbers of private traders there 
were many bidders for each Indian's furs. Com- 
plaint was continual that the British traders about 
the Lake of the Woods successfully offered whiskey 
as an inducement to get the trade of the American 
Indians. ^^^ Governor Cass, thinking it would be 
worse to lose the trade than admit the liquor, allowed 
its introduction, in "limited quantities", by those 
engaged in business along the boundary.^^" But the 
act of July 9, 1832, provided, that "no ardent spirits 
shall be hereafter introduced, under any pretence, 
into the Indian country. ' ' ^^^ This put an end to the 
stock excuse. At the same time Americans suffered 
to such an extent that Mr. Norman W. Kittson at 
Pembina wanted permission to destroy all liquor and 
punish all offenders, promising "that very little 
would be introduced after a short time ' \^^~ So acute 
was the difficulty that it became the subject of diplo- 
matic correspondence with Great Britain; ])ut the 
authorities of the Hudson's Bay Company retorted 
that "spirits are even clandestinely introduced into 
the Company's territories by citizens of the United 
States. "^'^^ ' 

During the first years stringent measures were in 
force at the mouth of the Minnesota River. At 
Prairie du Chien, Taliaferro had seen the barrels 
rolled out from the river vessels and they foretold to 
him coming murders and depredations. His cooper- 
ating friend, Colonel Snelling, graphically described 



THE FUR TRADE 141 

its evil effects. "Herds of Indians", he said, "are 
drawn together by the fascinations of whisky, and 
they exhibit the most degraded picture of human 
nature I ever witnessed. "^^* The drunken Indian 
did not molest the trader ; his peaceful fellow-tribes- 
man suffered more. "An Indian killed at Al [I] 
Faribault's Trading house — whiskey was given the 
Indian for his furs — by Mr. F. — The deceased then 
invited one of his friends to drink with him — the 
invitation was accepted — when this friend becoming- 
inflamed with the Liquor very inhospitably sunk his 
Tomahawk into the head of his host — whiskey it is 
said does no harm in the Trade by persons inter- 
ested — but the foregoing is only one of the many 
hundred fatal occurrences from its use in procuring 
furs unlawfully. ' ' ^^® 

In fact, the Indians were continually agitated. If 
they received the spirits they naturally revelled. 
When their supply was exhausted they raged and 
fumed until they secured more. Sometimes the dis- 
ease was more desirable than the cure. "I have 
thus far seen but few of the Indians of this place and 
I am in hopes of passing on North without much 
trouble there has just arrived a fresh supply of 
whiskey which will keep them busy for a few days 
and by that time my carts will be almost out of their 
reach. ' ' ^^'^ 

The eagerness for liquor on the part of the Indians 
made its introduction all the more easy. For it they 
were willing to pay much : eight horses were at one 
time exchanged for eight kegs of whiskey,^" and the 



142 OLD FORT SNELLING 

current rate at which it sold is indicated by the com- 
plaint which a Chippewa chief poured into the ears 
of the agent: ''My Father — Is it right for our 
traders to make us pay 200 Musk Rats, and 3 otters 
for a 3 gallon keg of mixed whiskey?"^** They 
would undergo extreme physical suffering, lying out 
in the rain and wading rivers and swamps, to bring 
the precious liquid to their villages. ^^^ 

The officers were never successful in entirely ban- 
ishing the prohibited article. Conditions depended 
upon the eagerness of the military and civil agents, 
on the number of soldiers stationed at the fort, and 
on the wiliness of the culprits. On one occasion 
liquor "was found secreted in barrels of corn, buried 
on the beach and in other secret places, and de- 
stroyed. ' ' ^^" 

Major Taliaferro was not lax in enforcing the 
laws. Every boat passing Fort Snelling was 
searched, and no liquor was allowed to enter the 
Indian country.^^^ A few stray references seem to 
indicate what was a usual occupation of the troops. 
' ' The Sub Agent Mr. Grooms left with 10 men on his 
2d expedition below Lake Pepin in quest of whiskey 
Smuglers — as our Indians even entering the coun- 
try with it from Prairie du Chiens and the Traders 
of the Am Fur Cpy are geting whiskey over the 
country by land and water ".^^^ During May, 1827» 
the agent called the attention of Colonel Josiah 
Snelling to the fact that in Mr. Bailly's store at Men- 
dota there was whiskey which had been introduced 
into the Indian country contrary to law. Accord- 



THE FUR TRADE 143 



ingly a detachment of soldiers was sent under the 
command of Lieutenant J. B. F. Rupel, who suc- 
ceeded in finding two barrels which were taken away 
and stored in the fort.^^^ 

The year 1832 saw especial activity in the destruc- 
tion of liquor. The boat of one trader passed up the 
Mississippi during April, having on board eighteen 
barrels of whiskey.^''* Later in the season the vig- 
ilance of the officers had direct results. In July 
eleven kegs of high wines, very strong in quahty, and 
in quantity amounting to one hundred and ten gal- 
lons, were taken from the boat of Hazen Moores by 
Captain J. Vail. The value of this liquor was $330. 
In October of the same year, five kegs of high wines 
and one keg of whiskey were found by Lieutenant 
I. K. Greenough in the boat of Louis Provencalle. 
These confiscated kegs were stored in the fort, and 
an interesting side-light on their ultimate fate is 
contained in the report of Major Taliaferro "I am 
of opinion", he wrote, "from what I hear that the 
High Wines, and Whiskey Seized by Lieuts Vail and 
Greenough, and in Store here will soon be of little 
account in Consequence of loss by leakage, and the 
property Not in charge of any responsible person — 
Other than its mere deposite in the public store." 
Whether any eiforts were made to stop the leaks is 
not mentioned.^''^ 

These energetic movements caused ' ' consternation 
among those natives who have not yet joined the 
temperance Societties".^^^ But they also caused vio- 
lent opposition from the men whose goods had been 



144 OLD FORT SNELLING 

seized. These traders commenced a suit in the 
courts at Prairie du Chien against the commanding 
officer at Fort Snelling, arguing that while the law 
prohibited the introduction of liquor into the Indian 
country, this seizure had been made on the Missis- 
sippi River — ''a common highway open to all the 
Citizens of the United States".^" 

It is impossible to follow the course of the whiskey 
traffic through its ups and downs. Numerous cases 
are recorded where the soldiers "knocked in the 
head" the whiskey barrels.^^^ But it was probably 
true, as the missionary S. E. Riggs wrote from Lac 
qui Parle on June 15, 1847, to the Indian agent: 
*'The whiskey destroyed by the efforts of yourself 
and the commanding officer at Fort Snelling forms 
the glorious exception, and not the rule. ' ' ^^^ 

Under the regulations existing in 1830 the traders 
were allowed to take with them into the Indian coun- 
try one gallon per month for every person engaged 
in the party. Under plea of this they brought in 
high wines which were later diluted with water and 
distributed among the Indians. Of the amount 
brought in, the employees actually saw only one- 
third, and this they paid for at the rate of from eight 
to sixteen dollars per gallon.*"" Accordingly, Major 
Taliaferro issued a circular letter in which he stated 
that high wines and whiskey would be allowed to be 
brought in "in no case whatever".*"^ Actions such 
as these by the agent, who was still a young man, 
brought about the remark which Mr. Aitkin, a trader 
among the Chippewas, is reported to have made to 



THE FUR TRADE 145 

some chiefs: ''The Medals and Flags which you 
received at St Peters are nothing more than pewter 
and dish rags, and were given to you by a boy, and 
with a boys paw. ' ' *°^ 

Much of the good which should have resulted from 
the activities of the officers was lost because the 
Indian could not be punished. If liquor was found 
in his possession and seized there was nothing to 
prevent his going back and obtaining more, taking 
the chance of being more successful in evading the 
authorities the second time.*°^ Accordingly preven- 
tion as well as cure was tried, and Captain Eastman, 
Mr. Sibley, and others sought, with some success, to 
persuade the Indians to refuse to accept liquor.*"* 
Two years later the Indian agent, R. G. Murphy, 
organized a temperance society among the Sioux, 
who, an observer stated, were careful in living up to 
the pledge when once taken; and added, "One such 
man as Major Murphy does more real, practical 
good than all the missionary societies of New York 
and Boston.""^ 



SOLDIERS OF THE CROSS 

Since the days of Father Marquette the Missis- 
sippi Valley has owed much to the missionaries. 
Parkman has recounted their sufferings and their 
glorious achievements in discovery, in exploration, 
and in inspiring others with their stories of the won- 
derful West. But when the black-robed Jesuit 
departed, and mass was no longer said in the log 
chapels about the lakes and tributary streams, the 
influence of Christianity still abided. There came a 
new generation of soldiers of the cross who served 
the great valley in a later stage of development as 
unselfishly and as thoroughly as their predecessors 
had done in the earlier days. 

The Indian in the Northwest in 1830 was not unac- 
quainted with or hostile to the whites; he did not 
fall down in awe to worship one of a different color. 
His grandfather had traded with the wandering- 
traveller who often lived a whole winter in the vil- 
lage, and with his tribe had visited the great com- 
mercial center at Mackinac. His father remembered 
the day when the second class of strangers entered — 
the uniformed soldiers led by Pike — and now the 
sound of the big gun in the fort at the mouth of the 
Minnesota was no longer a dread portent. 

146 



SOLDIERS OF THE CROSS 147 

But the missionary was a novelty. His purpose 
was unknown. He did not ask for furs ; he did not 
stealthily give them whiskey; he did not come to 
summon them to councils at the agent's house; and 
he did not ask for cessions of land. If they would 
respect the white man's "medicine day"*"** and let 
their boys and girls attend the school, if they would 
listen patiently while he talked to them of things 
they did not understand, this newcomer was content. 
Out in the woods he cleared a patch of ground and 
grew corn. If the red men wanted to help he was 
very glad. When the winter storms came, and game 
was scarce, and the small supply of corn that the 
squaws had safely cached in the fall was eaten, then 
the missionary helped them in their difficulty. He 
often went with them on their hunts, shared all their 
privations, and eased their pain if accident or sick- 
ness befell them. As the activities of the mission 
broadened and its personnel enlarged, the Indian 
became more and more acquainted with whites who 
lived on farms and tilled the soil. So when at last 
the land was opened to settlement, the transition 
from the missionary's establishment to that of the 
American farmer was not sudden. 

Much has been written of the degeneration which 
came to the Indians about a fort through their asso- 
ciation with the soldiers. That such degeneration 
did result is true, but it came about in spite of the 
efforts of the officers. On the other hand, distinct 
steps were taken to improve the condition of the 
neighboring tribes ; and although these efforts were 



148 OLD FORT SNELLING 

soon transferred to the missionaries, yet these mis- 
sionaries depended so much on support and encour- 
agement from the soldiers that their enterprises may 
be considered as part of the history of Fort Snelling. 
The freedom from annoyance enjoyed by the mis- 
sionaries living near the fort as compared with those 
at a distance indicates the influence of the post.*°^ 

Soon after Fort Snelling was established, Talia- 
ferro attempted to persuade some Indians to under- 
take farming in order to supplement their hunting. 
But they preferred leaving this work to the rather 
desultory efforts of the squaws. One chief, how- 
ever, remembered the advice during the next winter. 
Far out on the plains that border on the Missouri 
Eiver he and his party were overtaken by a blizzard. 
Each one wrapped himself in his blanket and let the 
snow drift about and over him. With a little dried 
buffalo meat which they divided among them, they 
kept alive until the storm was over. While lying 
here, knowing not whether his companions were 
dead or alive, expecting himself to be a victim of 
either the cold or hunger or both. Chief Cloud Man 
resolved that if he ever returned to the vicinit}^ of 
Fort Snelling he would not depend entirely upon the 
hunt for his living, but would also engage in farming 
under the direction of the Indian agent. This was 
no mere death-bed conversion. Many of his com- 
panions refused to follow him in the movement; 
other chiefs openly opposed him; but in the spring 
eight Indians settled upon the shores of Lake Cal- 
houn to begin the life of agriculturists. This com- 



SOLDIERS OF THE CROSS 149 

munity was named Eatonville in honor of Secretary 
of War John H. Eaton.*''^ 

On September 1, 1829, there arrived at the fort, 
the Reverend Alvan Coe and the Reverend Jedediah 
I. Stevens, two missionaries on a religious exploring 
expedition to locate a site for an establishment. 
They bore with them letters of introduction from 
Joseph M. Street, the agent at Prairie du Chien, who 
commended them to Taliaferro's care with a con- 
vincing array of scriptural quotations. *°^ The agent 
offered them the use of the buildings connected with 
the grist mill and the saw mill at the Falls and his 
own colony at Eatonville. After preaching a few 
times to the garrison, the ministers left. It was not 
until 1835 that Mr. Stevens located permanently near 
the post."" 

Major Taliaferro was left alone to carry on the 
difficult enterprise of civilizing the natives. In 1830 
he wrote to the Secretary of War telling of the prog- 
ress he had made and of his plans for a log village 
in which the Indians could live, instead of in the 
flimsy bark houses, and a log house for the protec- 
tion of the Indians ' property. He begged for finan- 
cial aid, saying that "Six or eight hundred dollars 
would mature what has happily been begun, and this 
sum from the Civilization fund would enable me to 
progress with great efficiency, and without further 
tax on the Government. ' ' *^^ The need for his super- 
vision was constant. From his diary can be seen 
how continual was his interest in the experiment. 
On April 18, 1831, he ordered the hoes and plows 



150 OLD FORT SNELLING 

repaired, and on May 1 he went to the colony taking 
the implements with him. Here he found "most of 
them at work — Cuting down trees, Grubbing out the 
roots &c — What was more encouraging some few of 
the Men were at this unusual kind of labour for 
them — they laughed when they saw Me — I praised 
them, in every agreable way that could be conveyed 
to them in their language." Again on June 8th he 
was pleased to see the Indians all at work hoeing 
their corn and potatoes.^^" 

The success of the colony was gratifying. In 1833 
they raised from eight hundred to a thousand 
bushels of corn, and the population of the village 
was one hundred and twenty-five. Only one death 
had occurred in three years. "^ There was much to 
contend with, however, since the traders were ' ' vio- 
lently opposed to Indians commencing to seek a liv- 
ing in this way."*^* One trader stated that it was a 
loss to him of five hundred dollars whenever an In- 
dian learned to read and write.*^^ 

With all his duties it is no wonder that the agent 
was anxious to receive the help of the missionaries, 
and although he was himself ' ' a Deacon in the *■ Old 
School Presbyterian Church' 'V^*' his basis for aid- 
ing the red men, as he expressed it in a report, was 
that he had '^ endeavored to impress all missionaries 
with the true fact that Christianity must be preceded 
by civilization among the wild tribes. I hazard 
nothing in this, for an Indian must be taught all the 
temporal benefits of this life first, before you ask 
him to seek for eternal happiness ; teach him to wor- 



SOLDIERS OF THE CROSS 151 

ship the true and living Grod through the self-evident 
developments of his mother earth. In fine, let agri- 
culture and the arts precede the preaching of the 
gospel, after which, Christianity inculcate if prac- 
ticable.""^ 

The men who were to be Taliaferro's first helpers 
were living in the little village of Washington, Con- 
necticut — two brothers, one twenty- three years old 
and the other twenty-one. Here a great revival oc- 
curred and among those whose lives were changed 
were Samuel Pond and Gideon Pond. The next 
year the older of the two went to the West and 
drifted into the frontier town of Galena. Hearing 
from a traveller from Red River of the Sioux about 
Fort Snelling he decided to dedicate his life to up- 
lifting them. Upon broaching the subject to his 
brother the latter agreed, and on May 1, 1834, they 
left Galena on the '^Warrior". No missionary soci- 
ety was supporting them; they had only a little 
money ; they did not know a word of the ' ' Dakota ' ' 
tongue ; they were uneducated for missionary work. 
Living the roving life of the Indians as members of 
the tribe, they hoped to be able to gradually influence 
their lives and religion.*^® 

On May 6, 1834, the '' Warrior" reached Fort 
Snelling. At the agency house, Mr. Grooms, who was 
the acting agent in the absence of Major Taliaferro, 
rented them a room. Major Bliss, then in command 
at the fort, immediately summoned them to appear 
before him and explain their presence in the Indian 
country without permission.*" When he heard of 



152 OLD FORT SNELLING 

their plans, they fitted immediately into a problem 
that had been puzzling him. Big Thunder, chief of 
the Kaposia village, wanted to raise more corn. But 
by using the customary Indian method of hoeing up 
the ground before planting, it was impossible to get 
much land under cultivation. At Fort Snelling were 
oxen and a plow, but there was no one to do the plow- 
ing or teach the art to the Indians. Accordingly 
Samuel Pond volunteered to take charge of the prop- 
osition. 

The plow was taken down the river in a canoe, 
while the oxen were driven by land. But the war- 
riors were reluctant about touching the plow until 
Big Thunder, chief of the band, had seized the han- 
dles himself. For a week Samuel Pond continued 
the work. But the dogs had stolen the provisions he 
had taken from the fort, and so he was obliged not 
only to sleep in the Indian tepee, but also to live 
upon the ordinary Indian fare.*^" 

This task of plowing had just been performed 
when Major Taliaferro returned from the East. 
The success of the work done by Big Thunder led 
him to ask the Ponds to take charge of the Eaton- 
ville colony. As this would give them an opportu- 
nity of carrying out their plans, the brothers ac- 
cepted. Their position is indicated by the following 
entry in Taliaferro 's diary : ' ' I am to furnish out of 
my private funds — Hay for the Oxen — belonging to 
the Indians, & these young men are to have Charge 
of them for the Winter — They will plough some this 
fall and again in the Spring for the Indians, & go on 



SOLDIERS OF THE CROSS 153 

thereafter to instruct them in the arts & habits of 
civilized life.""'"^ 

Cloud Man, chief of the Calhoun band of Indians, 
chose a site near the lake, where a cabin was erected 
which cost a shilling — for nails. The walls were of 
tamarack logs from a neighboring grove; slabs ob- 
tained at the mill at the Falls of St. Anthony fur- 
nished a roof; and Major Taliaferro presented the 
missionaries with a window. Major Bliss gave 
them some potatoes, and Mrs. Bliss presented them 
with a ham. Knowing the thievishness of the na- 
tives, the Indian agent also added a padlock to the 
newly-finished cabin.^^- 

Near the house about four acres of land were 
cleared and fenced with logs. A quarter of a mile 
distant was the Indian village of fourteen bark 
lodges, each containing two or three families. This 
village was surrounded by corn fields and was 
reached through a narrow lane made by putting up 
posts and tying poles to them with strips of bark.*^^ 
According to Featherstonhaugh, who visited the 
establishment a year later, thirty acres were under 
cultivation and the yield of corn amounted to eight 
hundred bushels. It is interesting to note that this 
critical traveller found only one thing about Fort 
Snelling to commend and that was the self-sacrifice 
of the two Pond brothers.*^* 

They entered immediately into the life of the In- 
dians. An extract from a letter written by one of 
the brothers shows the wide variety of their duties. 
*'One Indian," he said, ''has been here to borrow my 



154 OLD FORT SNELLING 

axe, another to have me help him split a stick; an- 
other now interrupts me to borrow my hatchet; 
another has been here after a trap which he left with 
me ; another is now before my window at work with 
his axe, while the women and children are screaming- 
to drive the black-birds from their corn. Again I 
am interrupted by one who tells me that the Indians 
are going to play ball near our house to-day. Hun- 
dreds assemble on such occasions. "''-•' 

The work that was thus started soon expanded. 
In the spring of 1835 Rev. Thomas Smith William- 
son arrived at Fort Snelling with his wife, a child, 
Miss Sarah Poage, and Alexander G. Huggins. At 
about the same time Rev. Jedediah I. Stevens re- 
turned to the post he had visited in 1829, and with 
the help of the Pond brothers built a mission school 
at Lake Harriet. Dr. Williamson went up the Min- 
nesota River to Lac qui Parle, where another station 
was established. On May 19, 1837, Rev. Alfred 
Brunson came to Fort Snelling for a similar pur- 
pose, and after consulting with the agent and the 
commandant he chose the village of Kaposia for his 
headquarters. But these mission stations and their 
personnel were not permanent. The work of the 
Ponds was soon amalgamated with that of Mr. Stev- 
ens. In 1839 when the Sioux-Chippewa feuds were 
at their height and the Indians were afraid to remain 
at Lake Calhoun, Mr. Stevens tore down the little 
cabin the Ponds had built and used the material for 
breastworks and moved down the river to Wabasha 's 
village — outside the influence of Fort Snelling. iVt 



SOLDIERS OF THE CROSS 155 

the same time the Ponds moved nearer the fort, 
where they remained until in 1842 they established 
a mission at Oak Grove, eight miles up the Minnesota 
River. This same war spirit and the hostility to the 
missionaries who preached against it led to the aban- 
donment of the Kaposia enterprise in 1841. In 1846, 
however, Little Crow asked for a school, and Dr. 
Williamson came from Lac qui Parle to take charge 
of it. These missions remained in existence through- 
out the period of Old Fort Snelling.*^*^ 

The activities of the missions took on two forms — 
industrial and educational. By the treaty of 1837 a 
farmer was provided for the Sioux about the fort. 
This position was offered to Gideon Pond who in 
1838 accepted. In return for his salary of six hun- 
dred dollars he had to plow the cornfields, cut hay 
for the cattle and feed them during the winter, and 
build such shelters as the animals might need. As 
he could not do all this work alone — and he wanted 
it thoroughly done — much of his salary was spent 
in hiring others to help him. His services were 
offered in the same spirit of sacrifice which first 
brought him to the region. *^^ 

Blacksmiths were maintained at some of the vil- 
lages. In 1849 Mr. Chatel, blacksmith for Good 
Road's village, made among other things, 73 chains 
to hang kettles on for cooking, 23 traps, 230 axes, 
50 rat spears, 208 pairs of fish spears, 24 pairs of 
stirrups, 63 crooked knives, and 199 hoes. During 
the same year, Mr. Robertson, the farmer for Little 
Crow's village, ploughed 75 acres of land, made 500 



156 OLD FORT SNELLING 

yards of fence,' put up 20 tons of hay, and hauled 
corn for seventeen days. To be sure, Robertson and 
Chatel were not missionaries, but they were part of 
the movement for civilizing the Indians which was 
fostered and encouraged by the officers of the fort.*-* 
In 1837 at Lake Harriet there was an Indian 
boarding-school, where some half dozen half-breed 
girls were learning to read, write, and sew.*^^ The 
Pond brothers had made the beginnings of an alpha- 
bet of the Sioux language, and books and primers 
for the use of the scholars were soon printed.*^" At 
all the stations surrounding Fort Snelling schools 
were maintained, but here as elsewhere "the chil- 
dren in pleasant weather prefer playing to read- 
ing".*^^ Some progress was made, however, as is 
indicated by the school reports. In 1851 at the 
school maintained at Kaposia it is reported that 
Daniel Ren^dlle, Gustavus A. Robertson, Rosalie 
Renville, and Fat Duty Win can spell and read in 
English in McGuffy's Eclectic Primer, and can spell 
and read in the Sioux language in Wotvape Me- 

The success of these pioneer efforts depended 
much on the encouragement received at the begin- 
ning; and by a coincidence this encouragement w^as 
brought about the second summer that the Ponds 
were in the vicinity. During the winter Major Gus- 
tavus Loomis initiated ''a red-hot revival among the 
the soldiers", and although many of the converts 
backslid with the simultaneous appearance of spring 
and whiskey,*^^ yet there were so many that remained 



SOLDIERS OF THE CROSS 157 

faithful that on June 11, 1835, when Dr. Williamson 
arrived, a church was organized in one of the com- 
pany rooms at Fort Snelling. This church was com- 
posed of soldiers, missionaries, and fur traders and 
was a basis of support in the difficult task of civiliz- 
ing the Indians.*^* The officers protected and en- 
couraged the workers under all circumstances, the 
post doctor gave his services to them free, and once 
a month Mr. Stevens preached at the fort.*^^ 

In 1838 the church was strengthened by the ap- 
pointment of a chaplain, Eev. Ezekiel Gear of Ga- 
lena. But on December 11, 1838, as he was leaving 
Fort Crawford in a sleigh, the horse started up 
sooner than was expected and he was thrown out, 
breaking his right thigh bone. He was kept at the 
hospital at Fort Crawford for some months and did 
not arrive at Fort Snelling until April 28, 1839.*'*' 
As there was no room large enough to hold all the 
soldiers, they were at first not compelled to attend 
the services. In 1841, however, the chaplain re- 
ported that all the soldiers attended regularly, but 
answered feebly to the responses, although the chap- 
lain believed they were attentive to what was said. 
These movements, which were undertaken to elevate 
the character of the soldiers, could not but have an 
effect upon the success of the missionaries.*^'^ 

Under the protection of Fort Snelling efforts were 
also made to do religious work among the fur trad- 
ers. The inhabitants of Mendota were old voy- 
ageurs and traders, French and half-breeds, and 
most of them, having lived long without the minis- 
trations of the church, remembered the faith of their 



158 OLD FORT SxNELLING 

childhood days in Canada. When in 1838 the Min- 
nesota country west of the Mississippi was made a 
part of the Territory of Iowa, the Diocese of Du- 
buque was extended to correspond with the political 
area. In the following summer Bishop Loras of Du- 
buque visited the upper Mississippi and was enter- 
tained at the fort and by the faithful Catholics at 
Mendota. These amounted in number to one hun- 
dred and eighty-five, fifty-six of whom were baptized, 
eight were confirmed, and four couples were given 
the nuptial benediction. The need for permanent 
work was great. Plans were made to bring one or 
two Sioux to Dubuque to pass the winter and teach 
the language to some worker. In the spring of 1840 
Rev. Lucian Galtier was sent up to be the pastor of 
this flock.^^^^ 

It was often with despair that the missionaries 
saw the Indians still clinging to their heathen rites, 
and the few additions to the churches do not indicate 
any great transformation of an Indian nation. But 
if the lives of the natives were not elevated by their 
contact with the whites it was not because they had 
no opportunity. The forces wdiich led to their de- 
generation had the start of the civilizing forces, and 
they also appealed more to the Indian's nature. x\t 
the same time both romance and lustre is added to 
the relations of Old Fort Snelling with the surround- 
ing Indians by the story of the attempts of the men 
who had a vision of what Indian life could be, and 
who unselfishly tried to make that vision a reality, 
encouraged and supported by the military men at 
the fort. 



XI 

THE FASHIONABLE TOUR 

George Catlin, whose wanderings in the West had 
acquainted him with the most beautiful and the most 
accessible scenic spots of the country, urged upon 
his readers the adoption of a trip to the Falls of St. 
Anthony as the "Fashionable Tour".*'^ Primitive 
life and unspoiled landscapes could be seen from the 
comfortable decks of the steamboat. The objective 
point of these trips was the Falls of St. Anthony, but 
it was at Fort Snelling that the passengers were 
dropped. Only because of the necessity of bring- 
ing supplies to the troops at the post did the steam- 
boats make the journey. It is in the writings of 
these visitors that there have been preserved many 
pictures of life in and about Fort Snelling. More- 
over, these visits from the outside world brought 
pleasure and satisfaction to the smaller world about 
the fort. 

In the month of May, 1823, occurred an event 
which was epochal, not only in regard to the com- 
mercial development of the Northwest, but also in 
respect to the growth of the upper Mississippi as a 
Mecca for travellers. The steamboat "Virginia", 
one hundred and twenty feet long with a twenty foot 
beam, commanded by Captain Crawford, left St. 
Louis with supplies for Fort Snelling; on the tenth 

159 



160 OLD FORT SNELLING 

of May it was received by the soldiers at the fort 
with a salute of cannon and by the assembled In- 
dians with awe and consternation."" *'I know not 
what impression the first sight of the Phoenician 
vessels might make on the inhabitants of the coasts 
of Greece," wrote one who was a passenger on that 
eventful voyage, ''or the Triremi of the Romans on 
the natives of Iberia, Gaul, or Britain ; but I am sure 
it could not be stronger than that which I saw on the 
countenances of these savages at the arrival of our 
steam-boat.""' 

The man who wrote these words was J. C. Bel- 
trami, an Italian refugee, who for political reasons 
had fled from his native land. In 1823 he met Major 
Taliaferro at Pittsburgh and requested permission 
to accompany him to the Falls of St. Anthony. This 
was granted, and in company with the Indian agent 
he arrived at Fort Snelling on the first steamboat to 
brave the current of the upper Mississippi.**" Here 
for almost two months he was entertained by the 
officials at the post, visiting the Indian bands, attend- 
ing their councils, writing letters to ''My Dear 
Countess",**" and conversing with Mrs. Snelling who 
alone could speak French with him.*** He was on 
the point of setting out overland for Council Bluffs 
when another party arrived at the post. 

In the list of the exploring expeditions which trav- 
ersed the region about the head of Lake Superior, by 
far the most important was the one led by Stephen 
H. Long and conducted under the auspices of the 
War Department. The permanent members of the 



THE FASHIONABLE TOUR 161 

party were Major Long of the Topographical En- 
gineers, Thomas Say, zoologist and antiquary, Wil- 
liam H. Keating, mineralogist and geologist, Samuel 
Seymour, landscape painter and designer, and James 
E. Colhoun, astronomer and assistant topographer. 
The start was made at Philadelphia on April 30, 
1823, and the route led by way of Wheeling and Chi- 
cago to Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien. From 
this point Major Long and Mr. Colhoun travelled 
by land and the others by water, the two parties 
arriving at the fort on July 2nd and July 3rd re- 
spectively. After a few days w^ait the journey was 
again resumed late on the afternoon of July 9th.**^ 

In the meantime much had been done. The orders 
issued to Major Long had authorized him to call 
upon the commanding officer at any post for men, 
horses, camp equipage, provisions, boats, clothing, 
medicines, and goods to the value of three hundred 
dollars to be distributed among the Indians.***' Bis- 
cuits were baked in the ovens of the fort; Joseph 
Renville was engaged as an interpreter; and the 
detachment of troops which had accompanied them 
from Prairie du Chien was exchanged for a new 
guard, consisting of a sergeant, two corporals, and 
eighteen soldiers under the command of Lieutenant 
St. Clair Denny.**' 

But these preparations did not prevent them from 
enjoying the scenic views about Fort Snelling. On 
the sixth of July a walk was taken to the Falls of 
St. Anthony. An island in the river which divided 
the falls into two parts tempted Mr. Say, Mr. Col- 



162 OLD FORT SNELLING 

houn, and Mr. Keating to cross, the water being only 
two feet deep. But the ford was located only a few 
feet above the ledge of the rock, and the slippery 
footing rendered the exploit extremely dangerous. 
When this had been safely accomplished, Mr. Say 
and Mr. Colhoun crossed in the same way the eastern 
half of the falls, while Mr. Keating with great dif- 
ficulty returned to the western bank. Later when 
the others were crossing the dangerous passage, they 
were seen to be in great difficulties whereupon one of 
the soldiers went out and aided them to the shore. 
Only after they had been strengthened by a dinner, 
prepared by the old sergeant who was in charge of 
the government mills, were they able to return to the 
fort."« 

The expedition went up the Minnesota River to its 
source, then down the Red River to Lake Winnipeg 
and returned to the East b}" way of the fur trader 's 
route along the international boundary and Lake 
Superior. Fear of the Indians living about the 
mouth of the Blue Earth River, one of whose number 
had been arrested and sent to St. Louis for murder, 
had suggested the necessity of the military escort. 
But when the place was reached no trouble resulted, 
as the Indians had gone on their summer hunt. Ac- 
cordingly nine of the soldiers were sent back with 
canoes — some of the supplies having been destroyed 
by accidents. Those who remained had no easy task. 
There were only nine horses, and these were reserved 
for the officers and "gentlemen" of the company, so 
tliat the privates were obliged to walk.**^ 



THE FASHIONABLE TOUR 163 

On August 9th when the party left Pembina be- 
hind, their number had dwindled. Joseph Snelling, 
son of Colonel Snelling, who had gone with them thus 
far, returned by the same route with three soldiers. 
J. C. Beltrami, who had been allowed to cast his lot 
with theirs, and who had been equipped and supplied 
by the Indian agent, who had presented him with the 
'* noble steed 'Cadmus' ",*^° ^^^o left them. In com- 
pany with two Chippewas and a hois-hrule of Eed 
River, he set out for the southeast with the purpose 
of there finding the source of the Mississippi. Upon 
a small lake, which he named Lake Julia, he con- 
ferred the honor of being the head of the great river, 
while it seemed to him that the '' shades of Marco 
Polo, of Columbus, of Americus Vespucius, of the 
Cabots, of Verazani, of the Zenos, and various 
others, appeared present, and joyfully assisting at 
this high and solemn ceremony ".^^^ After a journey 
of great suffering he was welcomed at Fort Snell- 
ing — wearing a hat made of the bark of a tree, and 
clothes of skins.*^^ 

Not until late in the fall did the connection of Fort 
Snelling with this expedition cease, when the soldiers 
who had accompanied the party as far as Sault Ste. 
Marie returned to their post by the Fox- Wisconsin 
route after a journey rendered exceedingly disagree- 
able by the cold.*^^ 

In the summer of 1835 George Catlin and his wife 
spent several months at Fort Snelling. Mr. Catlin 
was an artist who made a specialty of Indian scenes, 
and his time was occupied in painting scenes of In- 



164 OLD FORT SNELLING 

dian life and portraits of Indian chiefs. His studio 
was a room in the officers' quarters, and his models 
were the natives who lingered about the agency. 

Mr. Catlin was extremely desirous of painting 
some pictures of Indian dances and ball-plays. In 
order to persuade the Indians to do their part, 
Lawrence Taliaferro told them on July 3rd that if 
they would come the next day and entertain the vis- 
itors, the great gun at the fort would be fired twenty- 
one times for their amusement. As this was the 
salute for the national holiday, he Avas safe in making 
the prophecy. Accordingly, on the fourth of July 
the prairie near the fort, for two hours, rang with 
the excited shouts of the ball-players ; and when this 
pastime was finished the '^ beggar 's-dance", the 
"buffalo-dance", the "bear-dance", the "eagle- 
dance", and the "dance-of-the-braves" furnished 
entertainment for three hours more.*^* 

On the sixteenth of July General Robert Patterson 
of Philadelphia with his sister and daughter arrived 
on the steamboat "Warrior". For their amusement 
the Indians staged the "dog-dance", using for their 
victims two dogs which were presented to them by 
the officers of the garrison. Accompanied by a sol- 
dier George Catlin left for Prairie du Chien on July 
27th. "About this lovely spot", he wrote, "I have 
whiled away a few months with great pleasure, and 
liaving visited all the curiosities, and all the different 
villages of Indians in the vicinity, I close my note- 
book and start in a few days for Prairie du Chien, 
which is three hundred miles below this ; where I 



THE FASHIONABLE TOUR 165 

shall have new subjects for my brush and new themes 
for my pen, when I may continue my epistles. ' ' *°^ 

In the thirties began that series of geological sur- 
veys which has continued ever since, under both the 
national and State governments. In the fall of 1835 
George William Featherstonhaugh and William 
Williams Mather, geologists in the service of the 
government, made a survey of the Minnesota Valley. 
The detailed scientific report of the survey was pub- 
lished by the government;*^'' while a popular de- 
scription of the trip, written by Mr. Featherston- 
haugh, appeared in London in 1847 entitled, ''A 
Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor". 

From September 12tli to September 15th on the 
up- journey and from October 16th to October 22nd 
on the return, the scientist was entertained at the 
fort. The reception which he received did not im- 
press him with its cordiality. ''I could not but re- 
flect upon the contrast betwixt the very kind atten- 
tions I had received at the other American posts, and 
the want of them I experienced here."*" But the 
feeling was mutual. The keen Indian agent char- 
acterized him by saying: ''He attempted to pass 
current for that which he possessed not — superior 
talent and modesty in his profession. "*^^ Mr, 
Featherstonhaugh was an Englishman in whose nar- 
rative American institutions were not praised. 
Even the presence of his American co-laborer, Mr. 
Mather, is not suspected by reading the entertaining 
story, for his name is not mentioned once. 

It is difficult, therefore, to judge how accurate the 



166 OLD FORT SNELLING 

account of his stay at Fort Snelling really is. The 
room which was given to him for his use was ' ' an old 
dirty, ill-smelling, comfortless store-room", and 

Major L (Loomis?) who was asked by the 

commandant to provide accommodations for the 
visitor bored him with his psalm-singing and ex- 
hortations, being *'a living rod in soak to tickle up 
sluggish Christians". But, probably unwittingly, 
Featherstonhaugh admitted that Fort Snelling was 
of some service to him. For the supplies and veg- 
etables taken from the post gardens brought the 
gunwale of the canoe to within four inches of the 
water ! ^^^ 

Further exploration of the upper Mississippi was 
made by Joseph N. Nicollet during the summer of 
the next year. This French scientist was aided in 
part by the War Department, and in part by the fur 
traders, P. Chouteau, Jr., & Co., of St. Louis.*^° 
While at Fort Snelling he determined to visit the 
sources of the great river, and in his enterprises he 
was greatly assisted by Lawrence Taliaferro, H. H. 
Sibley, and the officers at the fort. Some of the 
soldiers wished to accompany him, but the absence 
of many of the garrison at Prairie du Chien made 
their presence at the post necessary. Some Chip- 
pewa Indians, some half-breeds, and a Frenchman, 
Desire Fronchet, were his only companions when the 
ascent of the river was commenced. But at the first 
stopping place, near the Falls of St. Anthony, a band 
of thieving Sioux robbed him of many of his sup- 
plies, and the attempt would have been given up had 



THE FASHIONABLE TOUR 167 

not Major Taliaferro made good the loss from his 
own means.*" Nicollet visited Lake Itasca and in- 
dicated its principal tributary, so that some authors 
have credited him with being the discoverer of the 
true source of the Mississippi.*"^ 

After the return from this perilous journey, the 
winter was spent at Fort Snelling in working over 
the notes and a map. For the kindness shown him 
Mr. Nicollet expressed great appreciation, though 
the rude hospitality of the frontier post could pro- 
vide no supper better than wild rice, mush, and milk, 
and no sleeping quarters better than the storehouse. 
But here he was entertained, as the agent wrote, in 
Virginia fashion where a call lasts six months and a 
visit one year ; and the nights were made merry with 
the music of the violin and piano, and with the ani- 
mated conversation of Taliaferro and Nicollet. For 
many hours on cold winter nights he studied through 
his telescope the stars in the clear heavens.*®^ 

Mr. Nicollet devoted two more seasons to examin- 
ing the country between the Mississippi and Missouri 
rivers in company with John C. Fremont. In 1838 
a trip was made from Fort Snelling to the pipestone 
quarry; and in 1839 his party ascended the Missouri 
River to Fort Pierre, and then passed over the 
prairies to the Mississippi.*®* The accounts of these 
journeys were widely read, and coming from the pen 
of such an able scientist and pleasing writer, the in- 
terest of the country was turned to the rich possibil- 
ities of this new Northwest.*"^ 

In addition to these well-known travellers there 



168 OLD FORT SNELLING 

was a host of people who made the trip as a vacation 
jaunt. On June 1, 1836, the ''Palmyra" arrived 
with thirty passengers. The steamboat "Burling- 
ton" tied up at Fort Snelling on June 13, 1838, hav- 
ing among its many passengers Captain Frederick 
Marryat, the popular English novelist. Only two 
days later the ''Brazil" was moored near the "Bur- 
lington", the presence of two boats at the same time 
being considered a novel sight. The family of Gov- 
ernor Henry Dodge was on this second boat.*"*' 

On June 26, 1838, the "Burlington" was again at 
Fort Snelling. Among the tourists on this trip was 
Mrs. Alexander Hamilton who had embarked at Ga- 
lena where she had been visiting her son, W. S. 
Hamilton, who was connected with lead mining en- 
terprises in Wisconsin. The fact that Mrs. Hamil- 
ton had been a belle in society during the time of 
George Washington, and the general sympathy felt 
for her ever since the tragic death of her husband in 
1804, caused her to be received with more attention 
than was usually bestowed on tourists. At nine 
o'clock she was taken in a carriage to the Falls of 
St. Anthony, and when she returned to the fort in 
the afternoon the officers met her at the gate and led 
her to a chair placed upon a carpet in the center 
of the parade ground. After the troops had been 
reviewed she was entertained at the headquarters 
of the fort until the "Burlington" left that same 
evening.*"^ 

The extent of this tourist traffic is well illustrated 
in the newspapers of the time. Advertisements tell 



THE FASHIONABLE TOUR 169 

of the interesting features to be seen on a trip to the 
upper Mississippi, of the pleasures of steamboat 
travel, and promise that ''A first rate band of music 
will be on board. " "* An editor paused long enough 
in the exciting presidential "Log Cabin" campaign 
of 1840 to remark that "Pleasure trips to these Falls 
appear to be quite the go. Large parties of ladies 
and gentlemen have passed up on the steamboats 
Loyal Hanna and Malta. And we noticed in a late 
St. Louis paper, the advertisements of the Valley 
Forge, lone, Brazil and Monsoon, all for 'pleasure 
excursions to St. Peters'. We see also in the same 
paper, that the steamboat Fayette is advertised ' for 
Harrison and Reform' — rather an extensive coun- 
try we should think, at the present time. ' ' *^^ Even 
as far away as Louisville, Kentucky, steamboats 
were chartered for trips to the upper waters of the 
Mississippi River."*^" 

The pleasures of such a journey, the scenery en- 
joyed, the people met, the events of the day spent at 
Fort Snelling are well illustrated by two letters writ- 
ten by the Right Reverend Jackson Kemper, who 
was the missionary bishop of the Northwest of the 
Episcopal Church. *^^ In the month of August, 1843, 
he was the guest of Captain Throckmorton on the 
steamboat * ' General Brooke ' ' ; and he made the trip 
to Fort Snelling to confer with Rev. Ezekiel Gear 
who was the chaplain at the post. The first letter 
w^as dated August 25, 1843, and was written to his 
daughter. 

' ' Here we are snug and almost dry on a sand bar 



170 OLD FORT SNELLING 

and not more than 13 miles below St. Peters'^, he 
wrote, "While the Captain and his men are using 
all kinds of methods to get us off — the chief of which 
is to put our freight into a large barge aside of us — 
I will write you a few lines. It is now past 8 o'c. 
P. M. We still hope to get to the fort before night 
(mid-night I mean) Then the Captain says he will 
give us an early breakfast tomorrow and send us off 
to see the falls (5 Miles distant) and we must return 
so as to start down the river by noon. This is too 
bad in many respects ; but what can we do ? I have 
not time to stay with Mr. Gear until the next boat 
arrives ; that may not be for a week or two ; so I will 
say to Mr. G. when I see him : Here I am, & I have 
come not to see the falls but you, and I am at your 
disposal as long as I am here. If you choose to take 
me to the falls, it is well ; if you prefer that I should 
remain in your house I am content. — It is still prob- 
able that I shall be at Potosi next tuesday Morning. 
To travel on Sunday, and particularly to do so with- 
out an opportunity of preaching, will be very hard. 
There will probably be only 4 passengers besides my- 
self on the return. There was a little boat the other 
[day?] a-head of us, and I hoped she might be de- 
tained at the fort until Monday — but that prospect 
has vanished, for she has just past us descending to 
Galena. 

"It is supposed to be 500 miles from St. Louis to 
Prairie du Chien and 300 from there to St. Peters. 
We stopt at Prairie du Chien for some hours and a 
Judge Lockwood came on board who with his wife is 



THE FASHIONABLE TOUR 171 

an Episcopalian. He told me there are several in 
and about the town & he thought the prospect of 
organizing a church a fair one if a Missionary could 
be obtained (We are off the sand bar). From the 
prairie our voyage has been delightful. At the dis- 
tance of a mile or two from the river on each side 
are ranges of lofty hills, in a great variety of shapes. 
Many of them appeared as if the river had flowed for 
ages near to their tops. Some of them looked as if 
they had been cut in two ; and on the peaks of several 
were large blocks of rock. As we were woodding I 
spoke of going up to one of them but was told it was 
dangerous on account of rattle-snakes. There is a 
curious fact connected with that reptile. Cannon 
river flows into the Mis' from the west — it is a long 
& narrow stream — nine miles above Lake Pepin. 
They are never found north of that stream, although 
they abound below it. One of the hills we saw yes- 
terday had 3 or 4 large blocks of rock upon it, called 
the pot and kettles from their resemblance to those 
useful utensils. The prairies were frequent & some 
peculiarly attractive. On Wabasa's we saw a Sioux 
village — and a farmer's establishment — he being 
sent there by the U. S. to civilize the Indians. This 
morning we passed another village called Red Wings 
but saw very few of the inhabitants. The corn field 
was very .... [illegible] and there were in it 
elevated frames where the boys are kept to scare 
away the blackbirds. I saw smoke near the frames, 
the boys having kindled a fire to roast ears of corn 
for their comfort. The Sioux have winter & summer 



172 OLD FORT SNELLING 

houses. The latter are conical made of buffalo robes 
covering poles. The summer lodges looked some- 
thing like poor log huts & are made of poles & elm 
bark. Near Red Wings village there is a Miss^ 
establishment from Switzerland. — Lake Pepin is a 
beautiful sheet of water thro wli the M. flows or is an 
expanse of the M. & is 25 miles by 3. It apparently 
abounded in large fish, for they were constantly 
jumping out of the water. Its banks you know are 
celebrated for agates — but we have not time to stop 
a moment. — The settlements above P. du Chien are 
very few — now and then a solitary dwelling & a 
wood yard. At one of these places the man told me 
his nearest neighbor was 20 miles off. In winter 
there is a good deal of travelling on the river in 
sleighs. About half way up Lake Pepin is the lov- 
er's rock of which jou have heard, the Chippeway 
river enters from the East just below the commence- 
ment of the Lake, & its Mouth is 100 Miles below St. 
Peters. Up it & like wise up the St. Croix are saw 
mills, as that country abounds with Pine. The 
Mouth of the St. Croix is 30 miles below St. Peters. 
Here is a beautiful lake as large as L. Pepin thro' 
which the St. C. flows just before it joins the M. — 
We have a Mr. Akin on board whose trading estab- 
lishment is 300 Miles north of the St. Peters & 60 
west of Lake Superior. Then he has been among 
the Chippeways 33 yrs. He has been thro' Lake 
Superior 30 times to New York for goods & returned 
as often; and now for the first time he has traded 
with St. Louis. He knows perfectly all the Ian- 



THE FASHIONABLE TOUR 173 

guages around him. The most copious is the Chip- 
peway. He says they have some what of a written 
language, and he has frequently seen an Indian write 
off a ... . [illegible] for another on a piece 
of bark. He thinks the characters are something 
like those of the Mexicans. — Now I suppose you 
would like to receive a letter with the S. Peter's post 
Mark ; and if I ascertain it will not take more than 
a Month on its journey you shall receive this thro 
that channel ; otherwise I will reserve it for the p. o. 
of P. duChien'V" 

The narrative is continued in a letter of August 
29, 1843, written from Potosi, Wisconsin, to his son : 

' ' Although you may not have a very high opinion 
of the West, yet I think you would have liked to be 
with me in my late trip to St. Peters. The weather 
was delightful and the scenery grand and very novel. 
You have probably seen my letter to your sister; I 
will therefore say, we arrived at the end of our voy- 
age last friday night, and as the fog was very thick 
the next morning we could not see where we were 
until 8 oclock. Then the fort on a high hill, with its 
flag flying, had a fine appearance. Mr. Gear the 
chaplain soon called at the boat and appeared great- 
ly rejoiced to see me. I accompanied him to his 
quarters and saw his family and some of the officers 
and ladies of the garrison, and then he and I rode 
out 8 miles to the falls of St, Anthony. Though very 
inferior to those of Niagara, they are still well worth 
seeing. The scenery is wild — there are many im- 
mense rocks in the river, evidently broken off from 



174 OLD FORT SNELLING 

the precipice over which the water is dashed with 
considerable noise — the water in its fall is frequent- 
ly broken — but even when it is not so, the height is 
not more than 17|^ feet. Returning we went to a hill 
from whence we could see the whole of the fall for 
there is an island in the middle of the river which 
hides one half of it when you are near. A mile or 
two further brought us to a most beautiful and lofty 
cascade on Nine Mile river. The quantity of water 
was not large, but it fell amidst the wildest scene, 
unbroken, over a ledge of rock which extended far 
beyond its foundation. — There were not many In- 
dians. The few I saw were Sioux wiio looked much 
degenerated by their contact with the Whites. The 
families of the officers appeared very happy; the 
ladies told me they were like sisters. For months 
they have no visitors but wild Indians — Sioux or 
Chippeways. An old Scotchman who had been in 
this country 50 years told me that all the tribes to 
the North and West speak the Chippeway language 
or its dialects; that the Sioux is entirely different 
from it, but that a dialect of it is spoken by the Win- 
nebagoes, with this difference that the Sioux lan- 
guage has not the sound of the letter R in it while 
almost every word of the Winnebago abounds with 
Rs. He thinks that a person knowing the two lan- 
guages — the C. and S. could travel through the in- 
dian country from Mexico to the N. Pole and make 
himself understood. — We had to return to the boat 
by one oclock, and soon after we started down the 
river. Near the Mouth of the St. Croix — about 45 



THE FASHIONABLE TOUR 175 

miles below St. Peters, I saw on a prairie a large 
stone painted a bright red, to which the Indians offer 
sacrifices of tobacco &c. and consider a Wa-Kon or 
Spirit. — As we were on our journey Sunday after- 
noon I saw a bark canoe paddling towards us with 
great rapidity containing as I first thought an Indian 
and a white Man. The steamer was stopt, and soon 
the chattels (kettle, coffee-pot, &c) then the men 
afterwards the boat itself were on board. They 
proved to be a miner who had gone from Galena and 
a stout lad. Eight months ago a number of persons 
were induced by offers of land from Government to 
go to Lake Superior in search of copper ; and a large 
party had lately been occupied in removing an im- 
mense block of copper from the bed of a river which 
empties into the Lake. This miner had been thus 
occupied; and he informed me that the task was 
done — that the block weighed three tons — that it 
was to be taken to New York &c as an object of curi- 
osity. A fortnight ago he had started from the 
spot — skirted the Lake to a certain river, ascended 
that to its source, then carried the canoe with its 
contents 2 or 3 miles on their shoulders until they 
met the head waters of the St. Croix, and descended 
that river to the Mississippi. ' ' *" 



XII 
THE CHIPPEWA TREATY OF 1837 

The relations of the United States government to 
the Indians prior to 1871 shows a dual attitude. On 
the one hand, the Indians were the government's 
wards. By the ninth of the Articles of Confedera- 
tion, Congress was given the right of ''regulating 
the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians 
who were not members of any of the states " ; ^^* and 
by the act regulating Indian trade no cession of land 
could be valid unless made by treaty or convention.*^^ 
On the other hand, these treaties were negotiated 
and proclaimed with all the pomp and ceremony 
which would appeal to the Indian's mind and impress 
him with his importance as a member of a sovereign 
nation. This was distinctly a "legal fiction", but it 
continued as the customary method of procedure 
until the act of March 3, 1871, abolished the practice 
of considering the tribes as independent nations. ^^"^ 

As the nation increased in strength and the agri- 
cultural and commercial forces of the country were 
pushing westward and coming into contact with the 
distant tribes, the treaties increased in number and 
importance. Urged by the cries of hungry land- 
seekers the cession of land by the natives gradually 
became the most important phase of all treaties ; and 

176 



THE CHIPPEWA TREATY OF 1837 177 

in order that the new settlements might be protected 
from vengeful Indians the title to the land rested on 
legal cession rather than on conquest. It is stated 
on the authority of the Commissioner of Indian Af- 
fairs that ' ' Except only in the case of the Sioux In- 
dians in Minnesota, after the outbreak of 1862, the 
Government has never extinguished an Indian title 
as by right of conquest ; and in this case the Indians 
were provided with another reservation, and subse- 
quently were paid the net proceeds arising from the 
sale of the land vacated."*" 

The negotiation of a treaty was not an easy affair. 
There were no recognized representatives of the 
tribe. In order that a treaty might be satisfactory 
it was necessary that all factions be consulted ; and 
the braves who gathered often numbered into the 
hundreds. Thus, in planning the negotiations a 
satisfactory place and an opportune time must be 
selected, while the red men must be supported while 
away from home and protected from lurking en- 
emies. It was in these phases of treaty-making that 
the military posts showed their importance. 

The first important treaty with which the tribes 
living about Fort Snelling were concerned was that 
made at Prairie du Chien in 1825. The little fron- 
tier village presented a gala appearance during the 
month of August when the great convocation was 
held. There were Chippewas, Sioux, Sacs and 
Foxes, Menomonies, lowas, Winnebagoes, and a por- 
tion of the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Pottawattomie 
tribes living on the Illinois River gathered to consult 



178 OLD FORT SNELLING 

with Governor Lewis Cass of Michigan and General 
Wilham Clark, the government's commissioners. 
Of the 1054 drawing rations on the last day, 386 were 
of the delegation of Sioux and Chippewas gathered 
by Major Taliaferro at Fort Snelling and brought 
down in safety to make a triumphal entry in true 
Indian style with flags flying, drums beating, and 
guns firing/^® 

Although there was no cession of land, distinct 
progress was made in that the territories of the vari- 
ous tribes were defined, thus making negotiations 
easier for the future. Of especial importance was 
the Sioux-Chippewa boundary line, which made clear 
the territory of each tribe, so that when the year 
1837 arrived and treaties were made to obtain the 
lands east of the Mississippi, the areas with which 
each was concerned were clearly understood.*'^ 

By the year 1837 many conditions called for the 
cession of these lands. The forests, the water- 
power, the mines of lead and other ores aroused the 
desires of speculators. Settlers were thronging to 
Wisconsin, and it was felt that if the land could be 
purchased and the Indians removed, the people 
would be safe from any attacks, and the Indians 
would be removed from the contaminating influence 
of many of the undesirable whites.*^° There were 
also the traders who for years past had given credit 
to many worthless Indians who had never brought 
back from the hunt furs sufficient to pay for the 
goods advanced them; and they hoped that in the 



THE CHIPPEWA TREATY OF 1837 179 

payment for the lands certain sums would be re- 
served for the liquidation of these debts/^^ 

In the early summer of 1837 Major Taliaferro was 
ordered to organize a delegation of Sioux Indians 
who could be taken to Washington, where the Sioux 
negotiations would take place. At the same time 
orders were issued to summon the Chippewas of the 
upper Mississippi to a council to be held at Fort 
Snelling. To both of these groups the subject of the 
purchase of the Indian lands east of the Mississippi 
would be broached/^^ 

Miles Vineyard, who was the sub-agent at Fort 
Snelling, was immediately sent to the villages of the 
Chippewas. Early in July the red men began to 
arrive, and by July 20th about a thousand men, wo- 
men, and children had pitched their tepees near the 
fort. Many were the notable chiefs gathered there 
with their warriors. With the Pillager band from 
Leech Lake was Chief Flat Mouth, who had twenty- 
five times been on the warpath without receiving a 
wound, who had delivered his English medal to Pike 
in 1806, and whose band had been attacked by the 
Sioux under the walls of Fort Snelling in 1827. The 
most famous of the Chippewa chiefs, he was still liv- 
ing in 1852, being then seventy-eight years old.*^^ 

The chief of the bands from Gull Lake and Swan 
Eiver was Hole-in-the-Day. Energetic, brave, and 
intelligent, he gained a great influence over the Chip- 
pewas of the upper Mississippi. His name, which 
literally meant a bright spot in the sky, is often writ- 



180 OLD FORT SNELLING 



ten Hole-in-the-Sky. He was a frequent visitor at 
Fort Snelling and came to his death at that place in 
1847 when he fell from a wagon, breaking his neck 
and dying instantly/** His brother Strong Ground 
or Strong Earth was also present at the council. He 
had been a member of Flat Mouth's band at the time 
of the massacre in 1827. Thirty-six eagle plumes 
waved from his head-dress at the time of his death, 
each of them representing the scalp of an enemy. 
The first of these he obtained when as a small boy 
he dashed into the ranks of the Sioux during a con- 
flict and scalped a fallen warrior.**^ Chiefs and 
warriors from the St. Croix River, Mille Lac, and 
Sandy Lake, with their followers, were also en- 
camped near the fort. 

There were also notables among the wdiite men 
gathered there. The United States commissioner 
was Henry Dodge, known as an Indian fighter, and 
at that time Grovernor of Wisconsin Territory. Gen- 
eral William R. Smith of Pennsylvania, w^ho had 
been appointed by the President to serve as a com- 
missioner with Governor Dodge, was unable to come. 
Lawrence Taliaferro, the Indian agent, was busied 
with many duties connected with the safety of the 
visitors. Four hundred Sioux hovered about, and 
these had to be kept at a safe distance to avoid con- 
flicts. Verplanck Van Antwerp, the secretary of 
the commission; J. N. Nicollet, the explorer; H. H. 
Sibley; and many other fur traders watched the 
negotiations and put their names to the treaty as 
witnesses.*^*' 



THE CHIPPEWA TREATY OF 1837 181 

The council began on July 20tli. It was with the 
chiefs that Governor Dodge parleyed, but the war- 
riors and braves felt that they also should have some 
part in the proceedings. On one occasion several 
hundred of them, streaked with their brightest paint, 
waving their tomahawks and spears and carrying 
the war flag of the Chippewas, together with the flag 
of the United States, interrupted the council with 
their whoops and drums; and when they had ap- 
proached the chair of the Governor, paused while 
two of the warriors harangued the crowd on the 
kindness of the traders and the debts owed them/^^ 

The negotiations were carried on in a bower near 
the house of the agent. The chiefs were assembled 
daily ; the peace pipe was smoked ; and the red men, 
dressed only in leggings and breech cloths, with their 
long hair hanging over their shoulders under the 
eagle feathers upon their heads, and medals dangling 
from their necks, spoke of lands, of the traders, and 
of wars. The speeches of the Indians seemed inter- 
minable. From day to day action was postponed as 
they were waiting for other bands to arrive. 

To prolong the council as long as possible was 
satisfying to the appetite of the Indian. The rations 
issued by the commissary at Fort Snelling were not 
to be eagerly exchanged for the fare of a Chippewa 
lodge in the northern woods. But at first the menu 
was not satisfactory. Nadin (the Wind) complained 
on July 24th: "You have everything around you, 
and can give us some of the cattle that are around us 
on the prairie. At the treaty of Prairie du Chien, 



182 OLD FORT SMELLING 

the case was as difficult as this. The great Chief 
then fed us well with cattle." ^^^ Evidently this hint 
was acted upon, as the old records show that by July 
30th ten beeves weighing 6123 pounds had been fur- 
nished the Chippewas who were assembled to the 
number of 1400.*^'' The amount of supplies used on 
such an occasion is indicated by instructions given to 
Alexander Ramsey and John Chambers who in 1849 
were commissioned to treat with the Sioux Indians 
at Fort Snelling. They were authorized to obtain 
from the commissary at Fort Snelling 15,000 rations 
of flour, 10,000 of pork, 10,000 of salt, 10,000 of beans, 
and 5000 of soap.*'" 

At the first meeting Governor Dodge spoke to the 
Chippewas of the purpose of the council. Their 
lands east of the Mississippi, he informed them, were 
not valuable in game and were not suited for agri- 
cultural purposes. They were said to be covered 
with pine trees, which the white men were eager to 
obtain, and accordingly the government was willing 
to pay the Chippewa nation for them. Thus, by sell- 
ing the land they could obtain money for that which 
actually was of little value to them.*®^ 

There evidently was no intention on the part of the 
Indians not to sell the lands, but the council was pro- 
tracted, pending the arrival of other bands. Not 
until July 27th did they make any movement to close 
the deal. On that da}', Ma-ghe-ga-bo, a warrior of 
the Pillager band, dressed in his most fantastic cos- 
tume, covered a map of the land in question with a 
piece of paper, remarking that when the paper was 



THE CHIPPEWA TREATY OF 1837 183 

removed the land would be considered sold. He 
added a final request: ''My father, in all the coun- 
try we sell you, we wish to hold on to that which 
gives us life — the streams and lakes where we fish, 
and the trees from which we make sugar." 

Finally he asked all the chiefs who agreed to sell 
the land to rise. About thirty arose at his word. 
Immediately Ma-ghe-ga-bo raised the paper from the 
map and seized the hand of Governor Dodge. The 
sale was made. There remained only to agree upon 
the terms of the cession.*^^ 

During the negotiations, reference had been made 
continually by the Indians to the traders and the 
payment of the debts owed them. Pe-she-ke said: 
''I have been supported by the trader, and without 
his aid, could not get through the winter with naked 
skin. The grounds where your children have to 
hunt are as bare as that on which I now stand, and 
have no game upon them. . . . We have not 
much to give the traders, as our lands and hunting 
grounds are so destitute. Do us a kindness by pay- 
ing our old debts." That he was coached to make 
the remark is evident from his statement that "No- 
body — no trader has instructed me what to say to 
you."*'' 

On July 29th the terms were finally agreed upon, 
and while the secretary was writing out the treaty 
the braves of the Chippewas held a dance under the 
walls of Fort Snelling. This indicated not only 
their satisfaction at the successful conclusion of the 
council, but was also intended as a compliment to 



184 OLD FORT SNELLING 

the commissioner. Three hundred warriors circled 
about in their gaudy costumes, recounting during 
the pauses of the dance the deeds of bravery they 
had done and the number of Sioux scalps they had 
obtained. At a distance a great number of Sioux 
looked upon the scene, not daring to interfere when 
the troops of the fort were so near.*^* 

By this treaty the Chippewas ceded an immense 
tract of land east of the Mississippi. In return the 
United States agreed to pay annually for twenty 
years $9500 in money, $19,000 in goods, $3000 for 
blacksmiths, $1000 for farmers, $2000 in provisions, 
and $500 in tobacco. One hundred thousand dollars 
was to be paid to the half-breeds, and $70,000 was 
set aside to pay the claims of the fur traders. The 
privilege of hunting, fishing, and gathering wild rice 
along the lakes and rivers of the ceded territory was 
reserved for the Indians. "^^^ 

This cession of land by the Chippewas had its 
counterpart in a treaty concluded by Sioux chiefs on 
September 29, 1837, in "Washington, whither they 
had been taken by Major Taliaferro. All their lands 
east of the Mississippi — the land between the Black 
River and the Mississippi River as far north as the 
Sioux-Chippewa boundary line was given up for 
various considerations amounting in total to almost 
one million dollars.*^^ 

By these tw^o treaties all the lands east of Fort 
Snelling were opened to settlement and commercial 
exploitation. As soon as the news of their ratifica- 
tion came, developments immediately began — de- 



THE CHIPPEWA TREATY OF 1837 185 

velopments which had an important bearing upon 
the future history of Old Fort Snelling. The days 
when the Chippewa treaty was being drawn up are 
important, not only because they present an interest- 
ing sight of the picturesque features of an Indian 
council, but also because they show how Fort Snell- 
ing was assisting in the opening up of the rich timber 
lands and fertile prairies that border the Mississippi 
River. 

For many years the payment of annuities that had 
been promised the Sioux was an annual reminder of 
these treaties. It was necessary that each Indian 
receive his portion of the goods and money in person 
in order to prevent fraud. In the late summer of 
each year all the warriors of Red Wing's and Waba- 
sha's villages would leave their homes for the fort. 
In the agency building the United States officers, 
with the roll of the Sioux nation before them, called 
the names of the individuals, who one by one stepped 
up, touched the pen of the secretary, received the 
money, and deposited it in the box of his band. Out- 
side was the typical Indian group — squaws, chil- 
dren, dogs, and braves smoking their pipes and talk- 
ing of past achievements. And in order that the In- 
dians might always be conscious of the presence of 
the soldiers of the "Great Father", the band of the 
fort played patriotic and thrilling airs.*" 

With the transfer of the Indians to reservations 
higher up on the Minnesota River the payment of 
these annuities became a task which could no longer 
be performed at the fort. But the guarding of the 



186 OLD FORT SNELLING 



funds was a necessity. Captain James Monroe 
spent the latter half of the month of November, 1852, 
at Traverse des Sioux with one subaltern and forty- 
seven men of the dragoons and infantry, protecting 
the money from bandits and Indians. William T. 
Magruder was ordered on October 23, 1853, to pro- 
ceed in command of a detachment of troops to escort 
the money being sent to Fort Ridgely ; and exactly a 
year later, an officer and thirteen men were detailed 
to perform a similar task/°® 



XIII 
CITIZENS AND SOLDIERS 

"The frontier army post," writes Professor F. J. 
Turner, "serving to protect the settlers from the 
Indians, has also acted as a wedge to open the Indian 
country, and has been a nucleus for settlement. " *°^ 
When the Fifth Infantry built its cantonment on the 
Minnesota River there were no other habitations in 
the neighborhood. Traders yearly frequented the 
region and wintered on the banks of the Mississippi 
and Minnesota rivers, but their headquarters were 
located at Prairie du Cliien. Immediately after the 
beginning of the military establishment, however, the 
movement mentioned by Professor Turner was in- 
itiated. 

In the spring of 1820 J. B. Faribault came up with 
cattle for the garrison and decided to locate in the 
vicinity as a fur trader. On August 9th the Indians 
granted Pike's Island to his wife, Pelagi Faribault, 
who was the daughter of a Frenchman and a Sioux 
woman. Faribault immediately built houses upon 
the island, but high water washed them away. 
Thereupon he removed to the east side of the Missis- 
sippi. It is probably to this establishment that Bel- 
trami referred in 1823 when he wrote that ' ' there are 
no buildings round the fort, except three or four log- 

187 



188 OLD FORT SNELLING 

houses on the banks of the river, in which some sub- 
altern agents of the Southwest Company live among 
the frogs. " ^°" This position was also upon low land, 
and on April 21, 1826, when the ice began to move, 
Faribault's houses were carried away, while he and 
his family escaped in canoes/"^ After this second 
disaster Faribault's establishment was erected at 
Mendota, where Alexis Bailly had already located/"^ 
The growth of this village was very slow. But grad- 
ually old fur traders settled about it with their fam- 
ilies; voyageurs, when not employed on the rivers, 
lounged about the trading house ; and the agents and 
clerks of the American Fur Company had their per- 
manent homes in the rude log cabins which were 
clustered about. 

In the meantime a new element had been added to 
the surroundings of the fort. It was already three- 
quarters of a century since the traders had erected 
the first trading post upon the Bed Biver of the 
North, The early French voyageurs had left a race 
of half-breeds, popularly called hois-hndes, w^ho 
were the vassals of the two great companies. When 
their strength had been spent in the labors of hunt- 
ing and trapping, they retired to the vicinity of some 
post — the largest of these settlements being Fort 
Grarry, the germ of the modern city of Winnipeg, 
which as early as 1823 boasted of a population of 
about six hundred. ^°^ 

But not all of these half-breeds were traders. 
Thomas Douglas, the fifth Lord Selkirk had secured 
from the Hudson's Bay Company the grant of an 



CITIZENS AND SOLDIERS 189 

immense tract of land on the Red River, and in 1811 
he began the colonization of the region with poor 
immigrants from Scotland and Ireland. But the 
knowledge of the internal troubles of the company 
put an end to the immigration from these two coun- 
tries, and Lord Selkirk turned to Switzerland for 
new recruits. In 1821 a ship full of Swiss sailed for 
Fort York on Hudson's Bay, and late in the fall the 
party reached the Red River after a toilsome jour- 
ney up the Nelson River and across Lake Winnipeg. 
Being artisans and city-dwellers they were unable to 
endure the rough agricultural labors in the bleak 
north. Cold, floods, grasshoppers, and uncongenial 
neighbors rendered the location unpleasant.^''* 

Travellers from the south brought news of a bet- 
ter locality, and towards this place there soon began 
a movement which, while not great in any one year, 
was long continued. In 1821 five families made the 
journey to Fort Snelling, and their success inspired 
others. In 1823 thirteen families made the perilous 
journey of four hundred miles. From year to year, 
as families became discouraged they left the colony. 
Four hundred and eighty-nine persons had arrived 
at Fort Snelling up to 1835.'"^ 

The many hardships endured by these travellers, 
and their pitiful condition, appealed to the sympathy 
of the Americans,^"*' and they were welcomed and 
aided by the officers at Fort Snelling. During their 
stay one party was granted the use of the old bar- 
racks at Camp Cold Water. Employment was given 
the men upon the reservation, and those who pre- 



190 OLD FORT SNELLING 

ferred. to remain Avere allowed to settle upon the mil- 
itary grounds. Comparatively few, however, made 
their homes here, the greater number proceeding to 
Galena, Illinois, and Vevay, Indiana. On one occa- 
sion provisions for the down-river journey in gov- 
ernment keel-boats were issued by Colonel Snell- 
ing.^'*^ 

A third class of settlers around the fort was com- 
posed of discharged soldiers. Men stationed at Fort 
Snelling saw the agricultural value of the surround- 
ing lands, or the possibility of riches in the fur 
trade. Joseph R. Brown, who came as a drummer 
boy with Colonel Leavenworth in 1819, entered the 
employ of the post sutler when he ceased his connec- 
tion with the army, and later he became an Indian 
trader.^°^ Edward Phelan, John Hays, and William 
Evans, whose terms of service at Fort Snelling ex- 
pired about this time were among the first settlers 
on the land ceded in the treaty of 1837.^°^ 

In the fall of 1837 it was revealed by a survey that 
there were one hundred and fifty-seven white per- 
sons, not connected with the fort, living on the reser- 
vation. Of these, eighty-two had their homes in the 
vicinity of Camp Cold Water and seventy-five at the 
fur trading establishments. Approximately two 
hundred horses and cattle were owned by these per- 
sons."° 

For many years pleasant relations existed between 
the officers at the post and the civilians. The physi- 
cian of the garrison willingly responded to calls for 
his aid made by the people living outside the fort. 



CITIZENS AND SOLDIERS 191 



''I am compelled", wrote Joseph Renville to H. H. 
Sibley, ' ' to ask you for some assistance in regard to 
a disease which is very bad here — the whooping- 
cough. I pray you to ask the doctor for some medi- 
cine, particularly for some camphor."^" Many a 
time Lawrence Taliaferro presided at a frontier 
wedding, when in one of the rude huts on the reser- 
vation the picturesque fig-ure of the fur trader 
mingled with the glittering uniform of the officer, 
and dusky faces peered in at the windows awaiting 
the end of the ceremony when they also could par- 
take of such a feast as only the prairies, lakes, and 
sutler's store could provide.^^^ 

In the troubles which naturally arose between the 
settlers and the Indians, the agent was the mediator. 
Thirty of Peter Musick's cattle were killed by In- 
dians who, wanting only powder horns, left the car- 
casses to the wolves.^^^ On July 13, 1834, Jacob Fal- 
strom came to the agency bringing the feet and hams 
of an ox which he claimed had been shot by a Sioux 
Indian at Mud Lake. He claimed thirty-five dollars 
from the Indian Department for the loss which he 
had sustained. As he was a poor man and had a 
large family to support Major Taliaferro was moved 
to make an effort to aid him. "I proposed", he 
wrote in his diary the same evening, '^to contribute 
$5 for the benefit of J. Faustram to Several of the 
Gentlemen of the Post — but not meeting with a cor- 
responding Sentiment — the poor fellow must be in- 
formed of my bad success in his behalf ".^^* 

Only a week later Joseph R. Brown asked to be 



192 OLD FORT SNELLING 

paid for a hog wliich the Indians had killed.^^^ Dur- 
ing the summer of 1837 Louis Massy claimed $150; 
Abraham Perry $50; and Benjamin F. Baker $750 
for similar damages. ^^^ Many years later the agent 
wrote of these unpleasant duties: ''The traders 
would make a detective of the agent if practicable. 
All thefts on each other were reported to the agent 
for justice. Deserting boatmen (fed on corn and 
tallow) must be forced to proceed up the St. Peter's 
with their outfits for the trade, right or wrong. 
Every ox, cow, calf or hog lost by persons on the In- 
dian lands, the agents were expected to find the cul- 
prits or pay for these often fictitious losses." °^' 

A new era in the history of these settlers began 
when the treaties of 1837 opened the lands east of 
the Mississippi to settlement. Some time before 
they had heard rumors of the coming negotiations at 
Washington, and those living west of the Mississippi 
sent a memorial to the President stating that they 
had settled upon the land thinking it was part of the 
public domain and believing that they would have 
the right of preemption upon their claims. But now, 
if a new treaty was made and the land west of the 
Mississippi purchased for a military reservation, 
they asked that they be allowed reasonable compen- 
sation for the improvements they had made. How- 
ever, in the treaty no mention was made of a military 
reservation, the title to the land around the fort 
being allowed to rest upon Pike's treaty of 1805.^^^ 

But to Major J. Plympton, who became the com- 
manding officer at Fort Snelling during the summer 



CITIZENS AND SOLDIERS 193 

of 1837, the presence of these people was undesir- 
able, and so in a letter written to the Adjutant-Gen- 
eral he called attention to the settlement and com- 
plained of the difficulty of obtaining fuel for the 
garrison when the squatters were also engaged in 
the same task. In his reply on November 17, 1837, 
the Adjutant-General directed that a reservation be 
marked off — the extent of Pike's purchase being 
indefinite.^^^ 

On March 26, 1838, Major Plympton sent a map of 
the territory which he chose to have considered as 
a military reservation. This reservation, contrary 
to the expectations of many, included land on the 
east side of the Mississippi. Thus there were many 
who thought that they had been using their legal 
rights of preemption when in reality they were only 
squatters. Order No. 65 issued at the post on July 
26, 1838, forbade the erection of any buildings or 
fences upon the reservation, and prohibited the cut- 
ting of timber except for public use.^^° During this 
same time there seems to have been, on the part of 
those living on the west bank of the Mississippi, a 
movement to the east side. Mrs. Abraham Perry 
came to Agent Taliaferro on October 18, 1838, and 
complained that the Indians had killed three of her 
cattle ''just below the stone cave" — that is, Foun- 
tain Cave which was on the east bank of the river.^^^ 
Yet her husband was among those who had signed 
the petition of August 16, 1837, as residents on the 
west side. 

"Within these lands were also a number of shacks 



194 OLD FORT SNELLING 

along tlie river bank a few miles below Fort Snelling. 
Here whiskey was clandestinely transferred from 
the boats before they proceeded upstream. During 
the winter of 1839 the presence of these resorts had 
a deteriorating effect upon the garrison. Surgeon 
Emerson wrote to the Surgeon General of the United 
States on April 23, 1839 : ' ' Since the middle of win- 
ter we have been completely inundated with ardent 
spirits, and consequently the most beastly scenes of 
intoxication among the soldiers of this garrison and 
the Indians in its vicinity, which no doubt will add 
many cases to our sick-list .... I feel grieved 
to witness such scenes of drunkenness and dissipa- 
tion where I have spent many days of happiness, 
when we had no ardent spirits among us, and con- 
sequently sobriety and good conduct among the com- 
mand. ' ' "^ 

Brigadier General John E. Wool inspected Fort 
Snelling on June 2nd, and in a letter on June 28th 
he urged that the settlers be driven off the reserva- 
tion. "Such is the character of the white inhab- 
itants of that country", he wrote, "that if they can- 
not be permitted to carry on their nefarious traffic 
with the Indians, it will sooner or later involve them 
in a war with the United States." ^^^ 

Influenced by these letters and reports Secretary 
of "War J. R. Poinsett determined to compel all the 
settlers to leave. It is, however, wrong to suppose 
that all were guilty of whiskey-peddling. In a letter 
in which he commented on the number of persons 
present at the Sunday services in the fort the chap- 



CITIZENS AND SOLDIERS 195 

lain wrote that ' ' Some of the inhabitants also in the 
vicinity who were regular in their attendance have 
removed. ' ' ^^* 

The instructions for the removal were made out 
on October 21, 1839, and sent to Edward James, Mar- 
shal of the Territory of Wisconsin. They stated 
that if force should prove necessary to compel the 
people to leave, the Marshal should call upon the 
commanding officer at Fort Snelling for such aid. 
In that case he was instructed to act "with as much 
forbearance, consideration, and delicacy as may be 
consistent with the prompt and faithful perform- 
ance of the duties hereby assigned to you".^^^ 

The orders were not received by Marshal James 
until February 18, 1840, and he immediately for- 
warded them to his deputy, Ira B. Brunson of 
Prairie du Chien. As soon as navigation opened in 
the spring he left for Fort Snelling. Notice was at 
once given to the settlers to move, and when they 
refused a detachment of soldiers was called out on 
May 6th and under the direction of a lieutenant and 
Marshal Brunson the household goods of the settlers 
were carried out and their cabins destroyed.^^*' 

These ejected settlers found new homes a few 
miles down the river. In the midst of their rude 
homes a log chapel was dedicated in November, 1841, 
to the Apostle St. Paul by the Eeverend Lucian Gal- 
tier.^^^ As the ceded lands were more and more oc- 
cupied, the little village enjoyed a corresponding 
growth. Gradually the name of the chapel was 
adopted as the name of the settlement. In 1849 the 



196 OLD FORT SNELLING 

Territory of Minnesota was organized with the seat 
of the legislature at St. Paul. The new community 
prospered, and the town swarmed with settlers, In- 
dians, travellers, and adventurers who lived in tents 
or slept in barns in lieu of better accommodations. 
There were also capitalists, tradesmen, and officials 
who here made their homes. '^^^ 

It was inevitable that between this new community 
and Fort Snelling close relations should exist. The 
Territorial government was weak; to enforce order 
it was necessary for the Governor to make requisi- 
tion on the fort for troops. ^-^ The jail at Fort Snell- 
ing was also utilized for the punishment of many 
undesirable characters always drawn to a new re- 
gion. James Higby who sold a promissory note 
which had already been paid, and Jacob Shipler who 
was arrested on a charge of assault and battery were 
both given terms in the jail at the fort. John R. 
McGregor, who became angry and threw his wife 
against a cooking stove, was separated from his help- 
meet for a period of three months while he lan- 
guished in the fort.^^° 

The soldiers, in return, visited the frontier town, 
conducting themselves in the eyes of one observer 
''with much dig-nity and sobriety ".^^^ Not always, 
however, could their actions be thus described. Two 
soldiers who had just returned from an expedition 
to the Indian country, started for St. Paul on the 
evening of their return, carrying with them their 
blankets which they meant to sell for "refresh- 



CITIZENS AND SOLDIERS 197 

ment". But their birch canoe upset and before aid 
could reach them they were drowned.^^^ 

But relations of a more innocent and more desir- 
able sort also existed. In the officials of the Terri- 
tory the officers at the fort found congenial spirits. 
One of the popular pastimes of the little city was to 
ride out upon the frozen Mississippi in sleighs to 
Fort Snelling. ''This command", narrates an offi- 
cial report, ''had the honor of receiving His Excel- 
lency W. A. Gorman Gov. of Minnesota and the Hon. 
James Shields late of the U. S. Senate, on the 9th 
inst. by whom the Command was reviewed &c. in 
presence of a large concourse of Citizens. "^^^ The 
band of the Sixth Eegiment which had paraded 
through the streets of Mexico City playing "Yankee 
Doodle" now found occupation in playing for the 
balls and parties of the frontier town. Even the 
inhabitants of Stillwater, twenty-five miles distant, 
called on the fort to furnish the music for the Valen- 
tine Ball on February 14, 1850."* During the same 
month a concert was given, the proceeds going to the 
Washington Monument Association. A year later 
the ladies wiio had arranged to give a tea party to 
raise money for the benefit of the poor children of 
the community changed their plans and accepted the 
offer of the band who volunteered to give a concert 
for the purpose. ^"'^ The value of this association of 
citizens with the soldiers led to the remark of an 
editor that "We consider this band as well as the 
whole garrison, with its high intelligence — but espe- 



198 OLD FORT SNELLING 

cially the band, of infinite value to St. Paul — in fact, 
it is the most powerful element of influence amongst 
us, for our good, next to the pulpit and the press." ^""^ 

The tourists who for many years had been fre- 
quenting the upper Mississippi now increased in 
numbers. In the ''Drive of All Visitors" were in- 
cluded the Falls of St. Anthony, Lake Harriet, Min- 
nehaha Falls, and Fort Snelling.^^' From the look- 
out tower of the fort on the edge of the cliff, could 
be viewed the same scenery which had charmed 
Carver a hundred years before. Undoubtedly many 
thought as did the newspaper man who wrote : "In 
the contemplation of this scene from Ft. Snelling, 
one is ravished with a desire to get upon it ; and to 
appropriate a little domain for his home. It has 
the look of home. How can the Sioux ever consent 
to part with these lands ? ' ' ^"^ 

But two years later they did part with them. The 
two treaties in which the cession was acknowledged 
were brought about without military aid.^^^ This 
was in itself prophetic of the new status of the fort. 
With the growth of the Territorial organization, one 
by one the duties connected with Indian affairs, 
liquor troubles, and the protection of life and prop- 
erty were taken over by the civil officers, with the 
military men as the executors of their laws only 
when the regular forces of administration were un- 
able to handle the difficulties. 

And now the fort which had so long looked down 
upon the canoes of the Indians and traders saw on 



CITIZENS AND SOLDIERS 199 

its two rivers a new procession. Flatboats, steam- 
boats, and canoes bore upstream the hardy pioneers 
and their families, and returned loaded with the 
products of the farm and the forest. The post which 
could have successfully resisted the attack of Indian 
warriors, or even the siege of a civilized enemy was 
to fall before the invasion of the pioneers. The 
frontier had suddenly leaped far to the westward. 
In 1858, when the troops were withdrawn, there was 
no need of an establishment such as had existed dur- 
ing the first forty years. It was the passing of Old 
Fort Snelling which for so many years had been the 
remotest outpost of American law. 

The development of the Northwest was not 
brought about by the spectacular and romantic inci- 
dents which the chroniclers loved to record. So 
gradual was its progress that the factors contribut- 
ing to it can be seen only in the perspective of fifty 
years. It was the result of the monotonous details 
of the life of the fur trader who was the unwitting- 
explorer of the Northwest, and the forerunner of the 
permanent resident. The routine duties of garrison 
life and expeditions to the Indian country, often bar- 
ren of any visible result, added to its progress, as 
also did the weary marches of the explorer and the 
minute notations of the scientist who accompanied 
him. The patient sacrifices of the missionary who 
toiled at unaccustomed labors in the half-cleared 
cornfield and taught his primitive pupils in the log 
mission-house, introduced a new civilization. The 



200 OLD FORT SNELLING 

daily contact of tlie Indian and the white man at the 
fort and agency were prophetic of a new relationship 
between the two races. 

But because these events were so commonplace the 
contemporary chroniclers have bequeathed only a 
brief though eloquent epitome of this old Mississippi 
River post. It was the exception and not the rule to 
note that a company of soldiers was up the river 
watching the movements of the Indians, that a mis- 
sionary had been presented mth a ham, or that an 
explorer took with him so many vegetables from the 
gardens of the fort that the gunwale of his boat was 
brought within four inches of the water. But such 
are the stray references w^hich indicate the almost 
complete dependence upon the fort of all the factors 
in the development of the Northwest. 

In the preceding pages an attempt has been made 
to gather together from all sources the references 
which bear upon each particular phase of the pro- 
cess. In most cases they are few, not because the 
military men were not concerned with them, but be- 
cause at every post in the Mississippi Valley condi- 
tions were practically the same and the public, being 
acquainted with these routine duties, was more inter- 
ested in the picturesque Indian legends or in the 
duels between the officers. Of these latter incidents 
the pages of the history of Fort Snelling are full and 
in this respect it was typical of the American army 
post. But it is also an example of that which is of 



CITIZENS AND SOLDIERS 201 

more importance — the contribution of the army to 
the transformation of the Mississippi Valley. 

In many ways Fort Snelling is unique in the list of 
American forts. The British flag was borne in tri- 
umph to wave from the flagstaff of Fort Ticonderoga 
after it had been evacuated by the colonial patriots 
during the dark days of 1777 ; but never was a for- 
eign flag borne into Fort Snelling except to be burned 
in the sight of awestruck Indians. The guns of Fort 
Sumter announced the opening of the Civil War; 
never were the cannon at Fort Snelling fired at a foe. 
Mackinac was successively garrisoned by French, 
English, and American soldiers; whenever occupied 
by troops Fort Snelling flew the stars and stripes. 
The stockades at Boonesborough and Harrodstown 
w^ere besieged by hundreds of savages who fought to 
gain entrance and obtain the scalps of the pioneer 
men and women there gathered for safety; no hostile 
demonstration was ever staged near Fort Snelling. 
Its history was not made by the rifles and sabers of 
the soldiers ; the axe and the plow of the pioneer who 
worked in safety beneath its potential protection 
have left their history upon the landscape of the 
great Northwest. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 

CHAPTEE I 

1 Carver's Travels through the Interior Farts of North- Amei'ica, 
pp. vii, viii. 

2 To the region lying on the upper waters of three great river 
systems — the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, and the Eed Eiver of 
the North — the writer has applied the name "Upper Northwest" to 
distinguish it from the "Old Northwest" and the "Pacific North- 
west ' '. 

3 For a summary of the French explorations see Folwell 's Minne- 
sota, pp. 1-29. Thwaites's France in America, p. 74, contains an 
excellent map of the French operations in the West. 

4 The report of Louis Antoine Bougainville, written in 1757 and 
based on the reports of Canadian officials, shows the extent of Fi-ench 
commerce at the close of the period of French control. At Green 
Bay (La Baye) trade was carried on with the Folles-Avoines, Sacs, 
Foxes, Sioux, and other tribes, the amiual output being from five to 
six hundred packages of furs. In the North, extending westward 
along what is now the international boundary to the Lake of the 
Woods and then along the lakes and rivers of the Lake Winnipeg 
system, was the territory of the post known as ' ' The Sea of the 
West". This included seven forts and produced a yearly supply of 
from three to four hundred packages. ' ' These regions are every- 
where vast prairies; this is the route to take for the upper Missouri." 
— Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XVIII, pp. 167-195. A pic- 
turesque account of the life of the French traders is given in Neill's 
The History of Minnesota (Fourth Edition), pp. 115-119. 

5 Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XVIII, p. 251; Turner's 
The Character and Influence of the Indian Trade in Wisconsin in the 
Johns HopMns University Studies in Historical and Political Science, 
Vol. IX, pp. 584, 585. 

205 



206 OLD FORT SNELLING 

6 Thwaites 's Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 
Vol. VII, p. 373. In 1792, Peter Grant built a trading house on the 
sit« of St. Vincent, Minnesota, on the east bank of the Eed River, 
and in 1800-1801 the fort of Pembina was erected by the great trav- 
eller, Alexander Henry, the younger. — South Dakota Historical Col- 
lections, Vol. I, p. 138. 

" American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 684. 

8 Thwaites 's Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 
Vol. I, pp. 227, 228. Traders of the Hudson's Bay Company also 
frequented the spot. Sergeant John Ordway records in his journal for 
December 1, 1804, that ' ' a Scotsman who is tradeing at the Mandens 
came to visit us. he belonged to the hudson bay company. . . . 
he brought over Tobacco Beeds & other kinds of Goods. & traded with 
the Mandens for their furs & buffalow Robes, they bring Some Guns 
to trade for horses &. C. this hudsons bay compy lay Garrisoned near 
the N. W. Compy .... Eight or 10 days travel by land a North 
course from this. ' ' — Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XXII, 
p. 169. 

9 Chittenden 's TJie History of the American Fur Trade of the Far 
West, Vol. II, p. 556. 

10 Coues's The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. I, pp. 279, 280. 

11 Coues's The Expeditions of Zehulon M. Pike, Vol. I, p. 286. 

12 Coues's The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. I, p. 280. 

13 Coues's The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. I, p. 156. 

1-1 Coues's The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. I, p. 171. 

1'^ Coues's The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. I, p. 252. 

16 Wilkinson's instructions to Pike are printed in Coues's The Ex- 
peditions of Zebidon M. Pike, Vol. II, pp. 842-844. Before the found- 
ing of Fort Snelling the Minnesota River was called by the French 
voyageurs the "St. Pierre". When the Americans were established 
on its banks they anglicized this name into "St. Peter's". The fort, 
the agency, and the fur traders' establishment are commonly referred 
to in early literature as "St. Peter's". By a joint resolution of 
Congress on June 19, 1852, the name Minnesota was ordered to be used 
in all public documents in which the river was mentioned. This was 
the Indian name for the river. — United States Statutes at Large, 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 207 

Vol. X, p. 147. In mentioning this river use is made in this volume 
of the modern name, except when quoting. 

1" The account of the treaty is given in Coues's The Expeditions 
of Zebulon M. Pil-e, Vol. I, pp. 83, 84. The treaty itself is printed 
on page 231 and Pike's speech on pages 226-230. Article I contains 
the land cession : * ' That the Sioux nation grant unto the United 
States, for the purpose of establishment of military posts, nine miles 
square at the mouth of the St. Croix, also from below the confluence 
of the Mississippi and St. Peters up the Mississippi to include the 
falls of St. Anthony, extending nine miles on each side of the river, 
that the Sioux nation grants to the United States the full sovereignty 
and power over said district forever. ' ' The meaning of all this is 
extremely vague. 

18 American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 798. 

19 Publications of the Canadian Archives, No. 7, Documents Relat- 
ing to the Invasion of Canada and the Surrender of Detroit, 18W, 
pp. 11, 13. 

20 A petition of the London merchants to the English government 
stated that before the war the annual export of furs from Canada 
amounted to £250,000. Updyke's The Diplomacy of the War of 1812, 
p. 204. 

21 PuMications of the Canadian Archives, No. 7, Documents Belat- 
ing to the Invasion of Canada and the Surrender of Detroit, 1812, 
pp. 72, 73. 

22 Publications of the Canadian Archives, No. 7 , Documents Belat- 
ing to the Invasion of Canada and the Surrender of Detroit, 1812, 
pp. 66-69. The figures are given on page 69. 

^^Publications of the Canadian Archives, No. 7, Documents Eclat- 
ing to the Invasion of Canada and the Surrender of Detroit, 1812, 
p. 184. 

21 The best account of the massacre at Fort Dearborn is given in 
Quaife's Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835, pp. 211-231. 

25 Wisconsin Eistorical Collections, Vol. XIX, p. 323. 

2'3 Coues 's The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. I, pp. 120, 
194. 



208 OLD FORT SNELLING 

27 Micliigan Pioneer and Eistorieal Collections, Vol. XV, p. 219. 
It must be stated that the British in no way sought intentionally to 
use the Indians for the purpose of massacreing the whites. The in- 
structions to Dickson declared that he ' ' should restrain them by all 
the means in your power from acts of Cruelty and inhumanity". On 
March 16, 1813, Dickson reported to the military secretary at Quebec 
that he had taken steps to redeem the soldiers, women, and children 
of the ill-fated Fort Dearborn garrison, who were still captives. — 
Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. XV, pp. 258, 259. 

28 Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. XV, pp. 321, 
322. 

29 There is a summary of Dickson 's activities in the Wlsconsiii 
Historical Collections, Vol. XII, pp. 133-153. 

somies' Register, Vol. VI, p. 176. 

31 Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XIII, p. 10 ; Niles ' Reg- 
ister, Vol. VI, p. 242. 

32 Wisconsin Histoi-ical Collections, Vol. XI, pp. 254-270. 

33 Treaties and Conventions concluded between the United States of 
America and other powers since July 4, 1776, pp. 404, 405. 

3i American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. II, pp. 10, 11; 
Chittenden's The History of the American Fur Trade of the Far 
West, Vol. II, p. 561. 

33 These treaties were concluded: on July 18th with the Potta- 
wattomies and Piankashaws; on July 19th with the Tetons and Sioux 
of the Lakes, Sioux of St. Peter's Eiver, and Yankton Sioux; Septem- 
ber 2nd with the Kickapoos; September 8th with the Wyandots; Sep- 
tember 12th with the Osages; September 13th with the Sacs of the 
Missouri; September 14th with the Foxes; September 16th with the 
lowas. The treaties are published in Kappler 's Indian Affairs, Laws 
and Treaties, Vol. II, pp. 110-123. The reports of the commissioners 
and also the treaties are printed in the American State Papers, Indian 
Affairs, Vol. II, pp. 1-11. 

36 American State Papers, Indi-an Affairs, Vol. II, p. 9. 

37 For these migrations see the Michigan Pioneer and Historical 
Collections, Vol. XXIII, pp. 97, 443; Kingsford's The History of 
Canada, Vol. IX, p. 69 ; Report on Canadian Archives, 1896, p. 157. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 209 

During the negotiations at Ghent the British commissioners had 
sought to have established a permanent Indian territory to be a bar- 
rier state between the two powers. — Updyke's The Diplomacy of the 
War of 1812, p. 204. 

The Indians felt they had been abandoned by the English. Hence 
the liberality in gift distribution was an attempt to appease them. 

38 See the reports of W. H. Puthuff in the Wisconsin KMorical 
Collections, Vol. XIX, pp. 430-433, 472-474. 

39 Schoolcraft 's Personal Memoirs of a Eesidence of Thirty Years 
with the Indian Tribes, p. 19. 

*olrving's The Sketch-Boole (Hudson Edition), p. 489. 

41 Carr 's Missouri, p. 121. 

i2Niles' Register, Vol. VIII, p. 436, August 19, 1815. 

43 American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. II, p. 86. 

44 United States Statutes at Large, Vol. Ill, p. 332. John Jacob 
Astor of the American Fur Company has received the credit for the 
passage of this law. — ^Folwell's Minnesota, p. 54; Coman's Economic 
Beginnings of the Far West, Vol. I, pp. 344, 345. This is neglecting 
the fact that there was a unanimous outcry against foreign traders — 
one of the signs that the War of 1812 marks the rise of American 
nationality. The legislation of April 29, 1816, was not wholly satis- 
factory to Astor. ' ' I have seen a letter ' ', wrote William H. Puthuff, 
Indian agent at Mackinac, ' ' addressed by J. J. Astor to a Mr. Franks 
a British trader now at this place in which Mr. Astor expresses sur- 
prise and regret at the passage of a law forbidding British subjects 
from trading with Indians, within the American limits etc. ' ' — Wis- 
consin Historical Collections, Vol. XIX, p. 423. What Mr. Astor 
wanted was the prohibition of trade by American private citizens 
as well as by British private citizens. If his American Fur 
Company were given a monopoly as he desired, he also wanted to be 
free to employ such persons — American or British — as he needed. 

45 Or, more correctly from the point where a north and south line 
drawn through the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods 
would intersect this parallel. — Treaties and Conventions concluded 
between the United States of America and other powers since July 4, 
1776, p. 416. 



210 OLD FORT SNELLING 

46 Treaties and Conventions concluded between the United States 
of America and otlier powers since July 4, 1776, p. 377. 

47 Coues's The Expeditions of Zehulon M. Pike, Vol. I, p. 279. 
isNiles' Begister, Vol. XIV, pp. 387-389, 

49 There is an excellent account of the United States trading house 
system in Quaife's Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835, pp. 
289-309. 

50 Coues's The Expeditions of Zehulon M. Pilce, Vol. I, p. 228. 

51 American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. II, p. 6. 

52 Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XX, p. 39. 

CHAPTEE II 

53 For the erection of these posts see Quaife's Chicago and the Old 
Northwest, 1673-1835, p. 265; Thwaites's Wisconsin, pp. 180-182; 
Gue's History of loiva. Vol. I, pp. 137, 138. 

54 American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. I, p. 669. 

55 Major Long's journal is printed in the Minnesota Historical Col- 
lections, Vol. II, pp. 9-88. 

^<iNiles' Begister, Vol. XIV, p. 192. 

57 American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. I, p. 779. 

5s Neill's The History of Minnesota (Fourth Edition), p. 319. 

59 American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. II, p. 32. 

60 The story of the Yellowstone Expedition is narrated in detail in 
Chittenden's The History of the American Fur Trade of the Far 
West, Vol. II, pp. 562-587. See also the preface to James's Account 
of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Bocky Mountains in 
Thwaites's Early Western Travels, Vol. XIV, pp. 9-26. For the site 
of this fort see Thwaites's Early Western Travels, Vol. XXII, p. 275, 
note 231. 

61 Executive Docmnents, 1st Session, 34th Congress, Vol. I, Pt. 2, 
Document No. 1, p. 21. 

62 Leavenworth 's A Genealogy of the Leavenworth Family in the 
United States, p. 152. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 211 

63 Van Cleve's "Three Score Years and Ten," Life-Long Memories 
of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, p. 7. 

64 In the Detroit Gazette, February 18, 1820, Vol. Ill, No. 135, 
there is reprinted from the National Intelligencer an ' ' Extract of a 
letter from a gentleman of the expedition to the Falls of St. Anthony, 
to his friend in Washington, dated Cantonment of the 5th regt. U. S. 
Infantry, St. Peter's River, Nov. 10, 1819." It is from this letter 
that the dates of arriving at and leaving the various places are taken. 
The Adjutant General in an order praised the garrison at Fort How- 
ard "for the economy and expedition with which the command con- 
structed transport boats for the accommodation of the 5th regiment 
in its passage to the Mississippi. ' ' — Detroit Gazette, September 10, 
1819. 

65 Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. V, p. 96, note. Mi's. Van 
Cleve gives another version of this affair : ' ' When all was in order, 
Colonel Leavenworth stepped forth, and, through an interpreter, for- 
mally requested of the Chief permission to pass peaceably through 
their country. The Chief, a very handsome young brave, advanced, 
and, with his right arm uncovered, said, with most expressive gestures : 
'My brother, do you see the calm, blue sky above us? Do you see the 
lake that lies so peacefully at our feet? So calm, so peaceful are 
our hearts towards you. Pass on ! ' " — Van Cleve 's ' ' Three Score 
Years and Ten," Life-Long Memories of Fort SneUing, Minnesota, 
p. 11. 

That these Indians were not so friendly as this account would indi- 
cate is apparent from the statement in Major Forsyth's narrative 
that Captain Whistler of Fort Howard had been fired at, at different 
times during the summer of 1819 by these Winnebagoes. — Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Vol. Ill, p. 167. 

66 Major Forsyth's narrative, covering the time from his depai't- 
ure from St. Louis on June 7th until his arrival there again on Sep- 
tember 17th, is published in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. 
Ill, pp. 139-167; also in the Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. 
VI, pp. 188-219. It is from this narrative that the facts regarding 
the progress of the expedition were obtained. 

67 Major Forsyth's narrative in the Minnesota Historical Collec- 
tions, Vol. Ill, pp. 147, 148, 149. 

(is Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. Ill, p. 149; Van Cleve's 



212 OLD FORT SNELLING 

"Three Score Years and Ten," Life-Long Memories of Fort Snelling, 
Minnesota, p. 15. 

69 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. Ill, pp. 149-153, 159. 
Mrs. Van Cleve says that a few days were spent on the shores of Lake 
Pepin. — Van Cleve 's "Three Score Years and Ten," Life-Long 
Memories of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, p. 16. Mrs. Ellet in her sketch 
of Mrs. Clark says a week was spent at this place. — Ellet 's Pioneer 
Women of the West, p. 350. 

'io Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. Ill, pp. 153, 154. Neill 
records that the troops did not reach the Minnesota River ' ' until 
September". — • Neill 's The History of Minnesota (Fourth Edition), 
p. 320. But in Appendix L., p. 891, he gives the same dates as For- 
syth. In FolweU's Minnesota, p. 55, the statement is made that "the 
command arrived at Mendota August 23 ' '. As the main body of 
soldiers did not arrive until Augaist 24th, this latter date should be 
taken as the birthday of Fort Snelling. 

71 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. Ill, pp. 154-157 ; Detrait 
Gazette, October 22, 1819, February 18, 1820. 

-2 Detroit Gazette, February 18, 1820. 

"3 Van Cleve 's " Three Score Years and Ten," Life-Long Memories 
of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, pp. 18, 19. The baby was Charlotte 
Ouisconsin Clark who married General Horatio P. Van Cleve. In 
1888 she published a book of reminiscences. It possesses all the 
merits and defects of a book of reminiscences — vividness of pic- 
tures — • inaccuracy in regard to specific facts. 

'■t Ellet 's Pioneer Women of the West, p. 351; Minnesota Historical 
Collections, Vol. VI, p. 48. 

75 Mrs. Van Cleve, who received her information from her father, 
gives the number as forty. — Van Cleve 's "Three Score Years and 
Ten," Life-Long Memories of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, p. 19. James 
Doty, who kept the oflScial journal of the Cass Expedition of 1820, 
and who received his information from the officers at Camp Cold 
Water, gives the number as forty. — Wisconsin Historical Collections, 
Vol. XIII, p, 214. Philander Prescott in his reminiscences states 
that ' ' Some fifty or sixty had died, and some ten men died after I 
arrived ' '. — Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 478. L. 
Grigiion wrote on April 3, 1820, that "They tell me that fifty Sol- 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 213 

diers of the river St. Pierre have died of Scurvy ' '. — Wisconsin His- 
torical Collections, Vol. XX, p. 161. 

In writing of the attack of scurvy Mr. H. H. Sibley remarks: 
' ' It was doubtless caused by the bad quality of the provisions, espe- 
cially of the pork, which was spoiled by the villany of the contractors, 
or their agents, in drawing the brine from the barrels that contained 
it, after leaving St. Louis, in order to lighten the load, and causing 
the barrels to be refilled with river Avater, before their delivery at the 
post, to avoid detection. The troops were compelled to live on this 
unwholesome fare for two successive seasons, before the fraud was 
discovered. ' ' — ■ Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. I, pp. 473, 474. 
Nowhere else is this explanation given. Sickness could easily come 
at a frontier post without such villainy. During the same winter at 
Camp Missouri over half of the garrison of seven hundred men were 
sick, and nearly one hundred of them died. At Council Bluflf there 
was also a great deal of sickness. — Detroit Gazette, July 21, Septem- 
ber 1, 1820. 

''^Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. I, p. 473. 

'<' Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 103 

78 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, pp. 478, 479. 

'9 Reports of Committees, 1st Session, 35th Congress, Vol. II, Re- 
port No. 351, p. 136. 

80 These facts are from the reminiscences of Philander Prescott in 
the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, pp. 478, 479. 

SI Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 105. 

82 Snelling to Taliaferro, November 7, 1821. — • Taliaferro Letters, 
Vol. I, No. 30. 

S3 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 107. Mrs. Van 
Cleve states that the fort was occupied in the fall of 1821. — Van 
Cleve's "Three Score Years and Ten," Life-Long Memories of Fort 
Snelling, Minnesota, p. 32. 

84 Indian Office Files, 1830, No. 153. 

85 Schoolcraft's Narrative Journal of Travels from Detroit North- 
west through the Great Chain of American Lakes to the sources of 
the Mississippi Biver, pp. 292-315. The oflficial journal was kept by 
James Doty. The time spent with Leavenworth 's troops is described 
in the Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XIII, pp. 212-216. 



214 OLD FORT SNELLING 

S6 Captain Kearny's journal is printed in tlie Missouri Historical 
Society Collections, Vol. Ill, pp. 8-29, 99-131. Pages 104-110 are 
devoted to the time spent at Camp Cold Water. 

8" These facts regarding the change of the name are taken from 
Upham 's The Women and Children of Fort St. Anthony, Later named 
Fort Snelling in the Magazine of History, Vol. XXI, pp. 38, 39. Dr. 
Upham received his information from a letter from the Adjutant Gen- 
eral of the United States. 

CHAPTEE III 

ss See Miss Gallaher 's article on The Military-Indian Frontier 
1830-1835 in The loica Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XV, pp. 
393-428. 

89 Langham to Taliaferro, August 19, 1820. — Taliaferro Letters, 
Vol. I, No. 62. 

^0 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 117. 

siNeill's Th€ History of Minnesota (Fourth Edition), p. 901. 

92 Marsh to Taliaferro, June 26, 1827. — Taliaferro Letters, Vol. 
I, No. 76. 

93 This was the opening of the Winnebago War, often called the 
"Red Bird War". Accounts of it are given in William Joseph Snell- 
ing 's Early Bays at Prairie du Chien in the Wisconsin Historical 
Collections, Vol. V, pp. 144-153 ; and State Papers, 1st Session, 20th 
Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 1, pp. 150-163. 

94 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 118. 

95 For the movement of troops see State Papers, 1st Session, 20th 
Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 1, pp. 150-163. 

90 Taliaferro to Cass, October 4, 18Z2. — Indian Office Files, 1832, 
No. 226. 

9" Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 30th Congress, Vol. I, Docu- 
ment No. 1, pp. 439, 440, 459; Neill's The History of Minnesota 
(Fourth Edition), pp. 483-487. 

9s For an account of the Wiunebagoes and their many migrations 
see Jackson's A Century of Dishonor, pp. 218-256. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 215 

99 Executive Documents, 1st Session, 31st Congress, Vol. Ill, Pt. 2, 
Document No. 5, pp. 1028, 1029 ; The Minnesota Pioneer, September 
13, 1849. 

100 The Minnesota Pioneer, November 28, December 12, 1849. 

101 Executive Documents, 1st Session, 32nd Congress, Vol. II, Pt. 3, 
Document No. 2, p. 421. "The recent arrival at Fort Snelling of a 
company of dragoons, so long wanted, will greatly assist in intercept- 
ing the migration southward of this discontented people. ' ' — Report 
of Alexander Eamsey, October 21, 1850, in Senate Documents, 2nd 
Session, 31st Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 1, p. 81. 

102 This reservation was agi'eed upon by the treaty concluded at 
Washington, D. C, on February 27, 1855; Kappler's Indian Affairs, 
Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, pp. 690-693. 

103 Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 28th Congress, Vol. I, Docu- 
ment No. 1, pp. 316, 423. 

i04Bryce's The Eemarl-able History of tJw Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, pp. 365-372. A description of a hunt, written in French by 
Rev, M. Belcourt, is given in Executive Documents, 1st Session, 31st 
Congress, Vol. VIII, Document No. 51, pp. 44-52. 

105 Executive Docwments, 1st Session, 31st Congress, Vol. VIII, 
Document No. 51, p. 4. 

106 This was during the period that Professor William A. Dunning 
describes as "The Roaring Forties". "And the far flung interests 
of the British Empire need no more striking illustration than the fact 
that in whatever direction the Americans sought to expand their 
bounds, whether on the Atlantic or on the Pacific, in the Gulf of the 
tropics or under the Arctic circle, they found subjects of the Queen, 
with vested rights, opposing the movement." — Dunning 's The Brit- 
ish Empire and the United States, pp. 96, 97. 

107 Captain Sumner 's report is printed in the Executive Docu- 
ments, 1st Session, 29th Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 2, pp. 217- 
220. It is reprinted with explanatory notes in The loua Journal of 
History and Politics, Vol. XI, pp. 258-267. 

108 The report of Major Woods is printed in Executive Documents, 
1st Session, 31st Congress, Vol. VIII, Document No. 51. It contains 
fifty-five pages. Accompanying the expedition was John Pope, Brevet 



216 OLD FORT SNELLINO 

Captain of the TopogTaphical Engineers. His report is published in 
Senate Documents, 1st Session, 31st CongTess, Vol. X, Document No. 
42. There is an excellent map attached to the report. 

109 Colonel Smith's report is printed in the Executive Documents, 
2nd Session, oSth Congress, Vol. II, Pt. II, Document No. 1, pp. 
426-454. 

110 Ansel Briggs to the Secretary of War. — Indian Office Files, 
1849, No. 206. The petition was dated Washington, Iowa, July 31, 
1849. — 7k*«h Office Files, 1849, No. 208. 

111 Major Woods's report is found in the Indian Office Files, 1849, 
No. 174. 

112 The Minnesota Pioneer, April 3, 1850. 

113 The Minnesota Pioneer, May 16, 1850. 

11* See the letter of William Hutchinson, who was one of the party. 
It is published in The Minnesota Pioneer, June 13, 1850. ' ' Iowa City 
looks as it did five years ago ' ', he wrote. ' ' A few houses were built 
since that time; but evidently were not the capitol located at this 
place, it would be no great shaJces, though in time it is bound to 
come out. Some years since, Uncle Sam erected expensive bridges 
for the good citizens of Iowa, betwixt Dubuque and Iowa City; and 
strange to say the people are suffering them to rot down without cov- 
ering them. Iowa City has grown in ten years as large as Saint Paul, 
which is not 2 years old. Steamboats often get up to this place, but 
all will not suffice. ' ' 

115 Eeport of Major Woods. — Indian Office Files, 1850, No. 363. 

116 The Iowa Star (Fort Des Moines). July 18, 1850. 

iiT The Annals of lotva (First Series), Vol. VII, pp. 284, 285. 

' ' Part of Company D. 1st regiment of U. S. Dragoons under 
command of Lieut. Gardner passed through here on their way to the 
Missouri river. We understand they intend to pay a visit to the In- 
dian tribes on the upper Missouri and from thence across Minnesota 
Territory to their quarters at Ft. Snelling. ' ' — Quoted from the Fart 
Des Moines Gazette in the Miners' Express (Dubuque), September 4, 
1850. The return of the troops to Fort Snelling is noted in The 
Minnesota Pioneer, October 3, 1850. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 217 

118 Executive Docvments, 1st Session, 32nd Congi-ess, Vol. II, Pt. 
3, Document No. 2, p. 284. An account of the journey is printed in 
Tlie Minnesota Pioneer, February 12, 1852. 

119 Asa Whitney, a New York merchant, petitioned Congress in 
January, 1845, for a franchise and a grant of land to make this dream 
a reality. — Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 28th Congi-ess, pp. 218, 
219. 

120 Act of March 3, 1853. — United States Statutes at Large, Vol. 
X, p. 219. 

121 Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 33rd Congress, Document 
No. 91, pp. 1, 13, 74. 

122 Executive Bocwmcnts, 1st Session, 36th Congress, Document No. 
56, p. 36; Fost Eeturns, May, 1853, in the archives of the War De- 
partment, Washington, D. C. 

123 A brief account of the expedition is given in Paxson's The Last 
American Frontier, pp. 197-203. The reports of all the surveys were 
published by the government. That of Governor Stevens consists of 
651 pages, added to the report of the Secretary of War, published in 
Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 33rd Congress, Document No. 91. 
In 1859 Governor Stevens submitted a Narrative and Final Beport, 
published in two parts in the Executive Documents, 1st Session, 36th 
Congress, Document No. 56. The various reports of all the explorers 
are bound in a set of twelve volumes, in which Governor Stevens's 
first account may be found in Vol. I, and the later narrative in Vol. 
XII, Pts. I and II. 

124 Order No. 7 stated: "It is considered of great consequence 
that the several trains should not be intermingled; and the dragoons 
attached to the several parties will continue with them, camping and 
working with them, receiving their orders only from their particular 
chiefs, even when the whole force is brought together." — Executive 
Documents, 2nd Session, 33rd Congress, Document No. 91, p. 46. 

125 Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 28th Congress, Vol. I, Docu- 
ment No. 2, p. 112. 

126 Kappler's Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, j). 566. 

i27Kappler's Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, pp. 567- 
570. 



218 OLD FORT SNELLING 

128 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. X, Pt. I, p. 181. 

^20 Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 30th Congress, Vol. I, Docu- 
ment No. 1, p. 161. 

130 Senate Documents, 1st Session, 31st Congress, Vol. I, Document 
No. 1, pp. 180-183. 

131 The Minnesota Fioneer, July 19, 1849. 

''"'-The Minnesota Pioneer, September 6, 1849, July 11, November 
21, 1850. 

133 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. X, Pt. I, pp. 193, 199. 

is^Kappler's Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, pp. 588- 
593. 

135 Holcombe'a Minnesota in Three Centuries, Vol. II, pp. 327, 328; 
Annals of Iowa (First Series), Vol. VII, p. 290; Fost Returns, March, 
April, 1853, in the archives of the War Department, Washington, 
D. C. 

136 For Colonel Smith's expedition see above, Note 109. For the 
building of Fort Abercrombie see the Collections of the State His- 
torical Society of North Dakota, Vol. II, Pt. II, p. 7. 

137 Reports of Committees, 1st Session, 35th Congress, Vol. II, Ee- 
port No. 351, pp. 10-12. 

138 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 35th Congress, Pt. Ill, p. 2595. 

139 For the sale of Fort Snelling see Dr. Folwell's paper on The 
Sale of Fort Snelling, 1857, in the Minnesota Historical Collections, 
Vol. XV, pp. 393-410. 

140 The report of the committee may be found in Reports of Com- 
mittees, 1st Session, 35th Congress, Vol. II, Eeport No. 351. 

141 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 35th Congress, Pt. Ill, p. 2614. 

142 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 35th Congress, Pt. Ill, p. 2618. 

143 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VIII, p. 431. 

144 For papers relating to the readjustment see Executive Docu- 
ments, 3rd Session, 40th Congress, Vol. VII, Document No. 9. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 219 

CHAPTER IV 

145 Quoted, in Williams's A History of the City of Saint Paul, pp. 
58, 59. 

146 In the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VIII, pp. 430, 431, 
there is a list of the commanding officers from September, 1819 to 

May, 1858. 

147 Tor the life of Henry Leavenworth see the Kansas Historical 
Collections, Vol. VII, pp. 577, 578, Vol. IX, p. 569, Vol. XI, p. xxi; 
Powell's List of Officers of the Army of the United States, from 1779 
to 1900, p. 428; Cliittenden 's The History of the American Fur Trade 
of the Far West, Vol. II, pp. 630-632; Leavenworth's A Genealogy 
of tlie Leavenworth Family in the United States, pp. 150-154. 

148 American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 777. 

i49Ellet's Pioneer Women of the West, pp. 310-323, contains a 
sketch of the activities of Captain Snelling during the war. 

isoEllet's Pioneer Women of the West, pp. 313, 314. 

151 EUet's Pioneer Women of the West, p. 316. 

152 From the reminiscences of Mrs. Ann Adams in the Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Vol. VI, pp. 96, 97. Mrs. Adams, as a child, 
lived several years in the Snelling household. 

153 Powell's List of Officers of the Army of tlie United States, from 
1779 to 1900, p. 599; Ellet's Pioneer Women of the West, p. 334. 

154 From a manuscript entitled "Remarks on General Wm. Hull's 
Memoirs of the Campaign of the Northwestern Army, 1812", by 
Josiah Snelling. — Draper Collection, 8 U. 114, pp. 42, 43. 

155 The Works of Daniel Webster, Vol. V, p. 410. 

''^^^ Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VIII, pp. 440, 441. 

157 See the sketch of Captain Scott in Van Cleve's "Three Score 
Years and Ten," Life^Long Memories of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, 
pp. 28, 29. 

158 Senate Documents, 1st Session, 30th Congress, Vol. I, Document 
No. 1, p. 367. 

159 There is a sketch of Martin Scott in the Minnesota Historical 
Collections, Vol. Ill, pp. 180-187, from which this story is taken. 



220 OLD FORT SNELLING 

160 Powell's List of Officers of the Army of the United States, 
from 1779 to 1900, p. 577. 

^ei Niles' Register, Vol. 73, p. 130. 

162 The frontispiece of Mrs. Eastman's Dahcotah; or. Life and 
Legends of the Sioux around Fort Snelling was painted by Captain 
Eastman. 

163 Appletons' Cyclopaedia of Avierican Biography, Vol. II, p. 292. 

164 In his notes to Hiawatha Longfellow quotes from the introduc- 
tion of Mrs. Eastman's book, p. ii. — Longfelloiv's Complete Poetical 
Worlcs (Cambridge Edition), p. 666. 

165 Appletons ' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II, p. 292. 

166 Powell's List of Officers of the Army of the United States, from 
1779 to 1900, p. 449; Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VIII, p. 
441. 

167 The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. VIII, 
pp. 89, 90. 

lesEhodes's History of the United States, Vol. IV, p. 328. 

169 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1863, p. 816. 

i"o Bancroft's History of Oregon, Vol. II, pp. 611, 612. For the 
career of General Canby see Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American 
Biography, Vol. I, pp. 517, 518. 

iTi This incident is taken from Folsom's Fifty Years in the North- 
west, pp. 755, 756. Mr. Folsom says he took it ' ' from a St. Paul 
paper of 1887". 

i"2For the Dred Scott case see McMaster's A History of the 
People of the United States, Vol, VIII, pp. 278, 279. 

173 United States Statutes at Large, Vol. I, p. 50. 

174 United States Statutes at Large, Vol. IV, p. 564. 

175 United States Statutes at Large, Vol. IV, pp. 729-739. 

176 United States Statutes at Large, Vol. IX, p. 395. 

177 Quoted from the complaint of the agent, Nathaniel McLean, 
September 25, 1850, in Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 31st Congress, 
Vol. I, Document No. 1, p. 106. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 221 

'^'^Auto-biography of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro in the Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 249. 

'>^~^ Auto-biography of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro in the Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Vol. VI, pp. 253, 254. 

ISO Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 353. 

181 Taliaferro to Crawford, July 15, 1839. — Indian Office Files, 
1839, No. 512. 

182 These papers are in the possession of the Minnesota Historical 
Society. The dates covered in these diaries are from December, 1830, 
to June, 1831; May 25 to September 21, 1833; May 23 to August 
28, 1834. 

183 These letters are in the possession of the Minnesota Historical 
Society. In Volume I of these letters is the following notice: 
' ' These 326 letters, are part of the great mass of correspondence re- 
ceived by Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro, Indian Agent at Fort Snelling, 
1819-1840. They constitute but a small part of his accumulations in 
twenty years. The rest were burned in his house at Bedford, Pa., 
in 18 It was a great loss to us, as, had they been spared, we would 
have received all of them. But even these 326 contain a large amount 
of valuable material for Minnesota history. Even as autographs they 
are valuable, [see autobiography of Taliaferro, Vol. 6, Coll.] These 
letters were given by Maj. T. in March, 1868. Arranged, bound and 
indexed (by J. F. W.) 1891." 

184 Photostatic copies of many of these letters were taken and are 
to be found in the library of the Wisconsin Historical Society, where 
they were consulted. 

185 These letter books are now in the possession of the Kansas 
State Historical Society at Topeka, where they were consulted. The 
only volume containing letters from Major Taliaferro is referred to 
as the William Clarh Papers, Correspondence, 1830-1832. 

186 Auto-biography of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro in the Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 253. 

187 Powell's List of Officers of the Army of the United States, from 
1779 to 1900, p. 620. In the Taliaferro Letters are many letters 
from William Clark and Elbert Herring in which they address Mr. 
Taliaferro as "major". 



222 OLD FORT SNELLING 

188 Taliaferro Letters, Vol. I, No. 11. A note on this letter gives 
these dates. 

189 Nowhere is the date of his arrival at Fort Snelling given. In 
his autobiography he writes of his journey: "Jean Baptiste Fari- 
bault and family, had gone through by land, in charge of Colonel 
Leavenworth's horses and cows". — Minnesota Historical Collections, 
Vol. VI, p. 198. It was in the spring of 1820 that Faribault per- 
formed this service. — Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 
103. 

190 Clark to the Secretary of War, August 20, 1832. — Indian 
Office Files, 1832, No. 285. For his resignation see Indian Office 
Files, 1824, No. 39. 

^si Taliaferro's Diary, March 24, 1831. 

192 Taliaferro to Crawford, December 12, 1839. — Indian Office 
Files, 1839, No. 516. 

i93Neiirs The History of Minnesota (Fourth Edition), pp. 337- 
339. 

19* In the report for 1850 the agency at St. Peter 's is designated a 
"Sub-Agency". — Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 31st Congress, 
Vol. I, Document No. 1, p. 103. 

195 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. XII, pp. 339, 340. 

196 Indian Office Files, 1834, No. 213, 1827, No. 54, 1843, No. 222. 
19T Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. XII, p. 341. 

CHAP TEE V 

198 See Notes on Canada and the North-West States of America in 
BlacTcwood's Magazine, Vol. LXXVIII, p. 323, September, 1855. 
These articles by Laurence Oliphant were later published in book form 
under the title of Minnesota and tJie Far West. 

199 This is the height given in Nicollet's Beport intended to illus- 
trate a Map of the Hydrographical Basin of the Upper Mississippi 
River, p. 69. 

200 Seymour's Sketches of Minnesota, the New England of the 
West, p. 103. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 223 

201 This sketch of the fort is obtained from the map of Fort Snell- 
ing in the Minnesota Histoi-ical Collections, Vol. VIII, p. 431; and 
from a Eeport of tlie capacity and condition of the harraclcs, quarters, 
liospital, storehouses, ^-c, at Fort Snelling, Minnesota Territory, made 
to the Quartermaster General. This report was made on Augiist 23, 
1856. It is printed in Beports of Committees, 1st Session, 35th Con- 
gress, Vol. II, Eeport No. 351, pp. 407-409. 

202 American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. IV, p. 122. 

203 Latrobe's The Bambler in North America, Vol. II, p. 295. 

204 A statement of the equipment at the various posts during the 
fourth quarter of 1834 is printed in the American State Papeis, Mil- 
itary Affairs, Vol. V, p. 853-900. 

205 Taliaferro to Lucas, September 30, 1839. — Indian Office Files, 
1839, Xo. 492. 

206 Indian Office Files, 1830, No. 153. 

207 Taliaferro to William Clark, August 17, 1830. — Indian Office 
Files, 1830, No. 139. 

20S Taliaferro's Diary, April 7, 1831. 

209 Taliaferro's Diary, March 8, 1831. 

210 Taliaferro to Lucas, September 30, 1839. — Indian Office Files, 
1839, No. 492 ; Executive Documents, 3rd Session, 40th Congress, Vol. 
VII, Document No. 9, p. 19. 

211 Indian Office Files, 1830, No. 153. 

212 Indian Office Files, 1834, No. 207. 

213 Indian Office Files, 1830, No. 153. In the Sibley House at 
Mendota is hung an oil painting of Fort Snelling made by Sergeant 
Thomas who was stationed at Fort Snelling sometime between 1836 
and 1842. This painting, which was made from the hill behind Sibley 
House, shows the location of these various buildings. 

214 For Baker 's house see Executive Documents, 3rd Session, 40th 
Congress, Vol. VII, Document No. 9, pp. 19, 33, 34; also Reports of 
Committees, 1st session, 35th Congress, Vol. II, Eeport No. 351, p. 
400. 

215 Latrobe's The Eamiler in North America, Vol. II, pp. 295, 296. 
Charles Joseph Latrobe visited the post in the fall of 1833. 



224 OLD FORT SNELLING 

216 These buildings are shown in the picture mentioned in note 
213, above. 

217 There is a description of Mendota given in Seymour's Sletchcs 
of Minnesota, the New England of the West, pp. 101, 102. 

218 Seymour's Sketches of Minnesota, the New England of the 
West, p. 117; Bishop's Floral Home; or. First Years of Minnesota, 
pp. 156, 157. 

219 These figures are taken from Keating 's Narrative of an Ex- 
pedition to the Source of St. Peter's Eiver, Vol. I, p. 309. 

22oLatrob©'a The Bamiler in North America, Vol. II, p. 302. 

221 Executive Documents, 3rd Session, 40th Congress, Vol. VII, 
Document No. 9, pp. 37, 38 ; Reports of Committees, 1st Session, 35th 
Congress, Vol. II, Eeport No. 351, p. 148. 

222XJpham's The Women and Children of Fort St. Anthony, later 
named Fort Snelling in The Maga-zine of History, Vol. XXI, p. 37. 

223 See below, the chapter entitled Soldiers of the Cross. 

224 This enumeration of the Indian villages is from Pond 's The 
Dal-otas or Sioux in Minnesota as tlwy were in 1834 in the Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Vol. XII, pp. 320-330. The spelling of the 
names follows that used by Pond, although they were all wi-itten in 
many ways. The population figures are from Taliaferro's report in 
1834, found in hidian Office Files, 1834, No. 203. 

225 See the description of an Indian village in Latrobe's The 
Bambler in North America, Vol. II, pp. 288, 289; also, Keating 's 
Narrative of an Expedition to tlie Source of St. Peter's Eiver, Vol. 
I. pp. 342, 343. 

CHAPTER VI 

226 On December 22, 1819, the House of Representatives passed a 
resolution directing the Secretary of "War, J. C. Calhoun, to prepare 
a system of martial law and field service. His report was communi- 
cated to the House on December 26, 1820, and was entitled Systems 
of Martial Law, and Field Service, and Police. It is composed of 
two parts, namely. General Regulations for the Army, and A System 
of Martial Law. It is from these regulations that the following 
sketch of the routine life at a military post is built up. The report 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 225 

is published in the American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. II, 
pp. 201-274. 

227 ingersoU 's A History of the War Department of the United 
States, pp. 205, 206. 

228 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 119. 

229 American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. II, p. 210. 

230 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 95. 

231 American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. II, p. 210. 

232 American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. II, pp. 217, 218. 

233 These account books are in the possession of the Minnesota His- 
torical Society. 

234 Bishop's Floral Home; or. First Years of Minnesota, p. 161. 

235 Taliaferro 's Diary, March 22, 1831 ; Post Eeturns, March, 1840, 
in the archives of the War Department, Washington, D. C. 

236 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 97. 

237 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 345. 

238 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, pp. 336, 344. 

239 American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. Ill, pp. 341, 
342; Post Eeturns, September, 1828, in the archives of the War De- 
partment, Washington, D. C. 

^io Taliaferro's Diary, February 3, 1831. 

241 This report is published in the American State Papers, Military 
Affairs, Vol. Ill, pp. 273-277. 

242 American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. II, pp. 558, 706, 
Vol. Ill, p. 115. 

243 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 345. 

244 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. I, p. 476. 

245 American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. Ill, pp. 341, 342. 

246 American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. Ill, p. 277. 

2*7 American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. II, p. 205; Min- 
nesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 101. 



226 OLD FORT SNELLING 

248 Eastman's Bahcotah; or, Life and Legends of the Sioux around 
Fort Snelling, pp. 144, 145. 

249 American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. II, p. 265. 

250 Detroit Gazette, February 18, 1820. 

251 Keating 's Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. 
Peter's Eiver, Vol. I, p. 305. 

252 The Minnesota Pioneer, July 15, 1852. 

253 Executive Documents, 3rd Session, 40th Congress, Vol. VII, 
Document No. 9, p. 26; Post Eeturns, July, 1827, in the archives of 
the War Department, Washington, D. C. 

254 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 340. 

255 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VIII, p. 432. 

256 Minnesota Histoi-ical Collections, Vol. II, p. 115. 

257 Joseph M. Street to Postmaster General Barry, April 27, 1831. 
— • Street Papers, No. 15, Historical Department, Des Moines, Iowa. 

258 Williams 's A History of the City of Saint Paul, p. 44. 

259 Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1913, 
pp. 116, 117. 

260 Taliaferro's Diary, April 2, 5, 10, February 27, 1831. 

201 Street to Clark, March 10, 1831. — William ClarJc Papers, Cor- 
respondence, 1S30-1832, p. 132; Post Eeturns, March, 1830. See also 
Post Eeturns, December, 1829, December, 1830, in the archives of the 
War Department, Washington, D. C. 

262 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 342. 

263 Eeports of Committees, 1st Session, 35th Congress, Vol. II, Re- 
port No. 351, p. 131. 

264 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 342. 

265 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 130. ' * Monsieur 
Tonson" was a very popular farce written by W. T. Moncrief in 
1821. The French barber, Morbleu, is greatly troubled by a steady 
stream of visitors who come to make inquiries regarding a certain 
fictitious Mr. Thompson, hoping thereby to gain information regard- 
ing Adolphine de Courcy who has been traced to his door. — Walsh 's 
Heroes and Heroines of Fiction, p. 360. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 227 

^ea Taliaferro's Diary, January 20, February 22, 1831. 

267 Snelling to Taliaferro, October 19, July 25, 1824. — Taliaferro 
Letters, Vol. I, Nos. 50, 56. 

268 The Minnesota Pioneer, November 28, 1849. 

2G9 Taliaferro's Diary, February 10, 11, 24, 1831. 

270 George F. Turner to H. H. Sibley, February 11, 1842. — Sibley 
Papers, 1840-1850. 

2T1 Taliaferro to Street, March 30, ISil. — Street Papers, No. 12. 

272 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 100. 

273 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 112. 

274Neill's The History of Minnesota (Fourth Edition), p. 920. 
General Edmund P. Gaines inspected the post shortly afterwards and 
reported: "From a conversation with the colonel, I can have no 
doubt that he has erred iji the course pursued by him in reference to 
some of those controversies, inasmuch as he has intimated to his offi- 
cers his willingness to sanction, in certain cases, and even to par- 
ticipate in personal conflicts, contrary to the twenty-fifth article of 
war." — American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. IV, p. 123. 

2"' Taliaferro's Diary, March 27, 1831. 

CHAPTER VII 

276 Morse's A Beport to the Secretary of War of the United States 
on Indian Affairs, pp. 78, 79. 

277 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. XII, pp. 321, 322. 

278 Indian Office Files, 1834, No. 203. 

279 Taliaferro to Clark, August 5, 1830. — JT'i7?iam Claris Papers, 
Correspondence, 1830-18SS, p. 2. 

280 This description of Indian life is based on Pond 's The Dulcotas 
or Sioux in Minnesota as they were in 1834 in the Minnesota His- 
torical Collections, Vol. XII, pp. 319-501. 

281 The quotations are taken from Beltrami 's description of an 
Indian council which he attended at Fort Snelling in 1823. — Bel- 
trami 's A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, Vol. II, pp. 217-219. 



228 OLD FORT SNELLING 

282 These are taken from a list which is typical of the character of 
the presents, among the papers of Thomas Forsyth. — Draper Manu- 
scripts, 2T2. 

283 Annals of Congress, 1st session, 17th Congress, Vol. I, pp. 319, 
320. 

■284 Taliaferro's Diary, February 19, 1831. The speech of the chief 
closes thus: "We know you have nothing on hand for your children, 
but we hope you will give ua some Pork & Bread & a little Tobacco — 
as our pipes are out & have been for some time our old men will be 
pleased. ' ' The village of the Eed Head was St. Louis, the Red Head 
being General William Clark, the superintendent of Indian affairs. 

285 < ' The Crane and the Hole in the Day — and other Chippeways 
at the Agency this day — Several Sissiton Sioux also at the Agency. 
Issued 24 Rats Bread 20 pounds of Pork — 15 lbs. of tobacco. ' ' — 
Taliaferro's Diary, January 23, 1831. See also the diary under the 
dates of December 24, 1830, January 13, 17, 1831. 

286 Cass to Taliaferro, July 28, 1825. — Taliaferro Letters, Vol. I, 
No. 57. 

287 Taliaferro 's Diary, July 19, 1834. 

288 United States Statutes at Large, Vol. IV, p. 738. 

289 Taliaferro's Diary, March 4, 1831. 

290 Taliaferro to Harris, February 21, 1838. — Indian Office Files, 
1838, No. 631. 

291 For the suffering during the winter of 1842-1843 and the steps 
taken to relieve it see the letter from Dr. Williamson in the Mission- 
ary Herald, Vol. 39, p. 355, September, 1843 ; and Bruce to Chambers, 
April 3, 1843, in Indian Office Files, 1843, No. 222. 

292 Taliaferro to Dodge, June 30, 183S. — Indinn Office Files, 1838, 
No. 690. 

293 Taliaferro to Clark, March 3, 1831. — William ClarV. Papers, 
Correspondence, lSSO-1832, p. 129. 

294 Taliaferro to Clark, September 14, 1834. — Indian Office Files, 
1834, No. 206. 

295 Taliaferro's Diary, July 7, 1834. 

296 Taliaferro 's Diary, December 25, 1830. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 229 

297 Taliaferro's Diary, June 28, 30, 1834. On January 17, 1831, he 
gave a blanket in which to bury a woman. 

298 Indian Office Files, 1832, Nos. 287, 294, 295, 296. 

299 Auto-biography of Maj. Laivrence Taliaferro in the Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 236. 

300 Snelling to Taliaferro, November 13, 1820. — Taliaferro Let- 
ters, Vol. I, No. 21. 

301 Found among the Sibley Papers, 1830-1840. 

302 Taliaferro to Cass, March 3, 1832. — Indian Office Files, 1832, 
No. 289. 

303 Taliaferro to Clark, July 15, 1831. — William ClarJc Papers, 
Correspondence, 1830-1832, p. 235. 

304 Post Returns, April, May, 1834, July, 1835, in the archives of 
the War Department, Washington, D. C. 

305 '< These warriors of Mr. Rainville's were constantly with me, 
for they knew that I was an English warrior, as they called me, and 
they are very partial to the English." — Marryat's A Diary in Amer- 
ica, Vol. II, p. 91. Captain Marryat, the English novelist, visited the 
upper Mississippi region in 1837. 

* ' Many and strong are the recollections of the Sioux and other 
tribes, of their alliance with the British in the last and revolutionary 
wars, of which I have met many curious instances". — Catlin's Let- 
ters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North 
American Indians, Vol. II, p. 657, footnote. 

soemies' Begister, Vol. XXVI, p. 363, July 31, 1824; Vol. LIU, 
p. 33, September 16, 1837. 

307 Marryat's A Diary in America, Vol. Ill, pp. 221, 222. 

308 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. XII, p. 320. 

zo^Niles' Begister, Vol. LIU, p. 82, October 7, 1837. 

sioSnelling to Taliaferro, October 19, 1824. — Taliaferro Letters, 
Vol. I, No. 50. 

31-i- Taliaferro's Diary, March 18, 1831. 

312 Taliaferro's Diary, March 11, 1831. 



230 OLD FORT SNELLINO 

313 Taliaferro to Clark, April .3, 1831. — William Clarl- Papers, 
Correspondence, 1830-1832, p. 161. 

314 Eenville to Sibley, August 21, 1840. — SiUey Papers, 1830-1840. 

315 Quoted in Neill's The History of Minnesota, pp. 3.38, 339. The 
two men murdered on the Missouri River in 1820 were Isadore Pou- 
pon, a French half-breed, and Joseph F. Andrews, a Canadian. 

3i6Quaife's Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835, p. 283. 

3i7Snelling to Taliaferro, March 19, 1822. — Taliaferro Letters, 
Vol. I, No. 32. The quotation is taken from this letter. See also 
Calhoun to Snelling, September 18, 1822. — Taliaferro Letters, Vol. 
I, No. 40. 

318 Letter of George Johnson, November 2, 1825. — Indian Office 
Files, 1825-1826, No. 4. 

310 Taliaferro to Harris, September 10, 1838. — Indian Office Files, 
1838, No. 663. 

CHAPTER VIII 

320 Morse's A Beport to the Secretary of War of the United States 
on Indian Affairs, p. 28. 

321 Kellogg's Early Narratives of the Northwest, 1634-1699, p. 50. 

322 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 209. 

323 Baker to Taliaferro, May 19, 1H29. — Indian Office Files, 1829, 
No. 64. 

324 Speech of Flat Mouth, May 27, 1827. — Indian Office Files, 
1827, No. 14. 

^27. Indian- Office Files, 1827, No. 9. 

326 From Mrs. Van Oleve's reminiscences in the Minnesota His- 
torical Collections, Vol. Ill, p. 80. 

327 The information upon which the entire incident is built is con- 
tained in the letter of Snelling to Atkinson, May 31, 1827, in Indian 
Office Files, 1827, No. 10 ; the letter of Taliaferro to Clark, May 31, 
1827, in Indian Office Files, 1827, No. 12; Neill's The History of Min- 
nesota, pp. 391-394; Eeminiscences of Mrs. Ann Adams in the Min- 
nesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, pp. 107-110; A Reminiscence 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 231 

of Ft. SneUing, by Mrs. Charlotte O. Van Cleve, in the Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Vol. Ill, pj). 76-81; Bunning the Gantlet by 
William J. SneUing (the son of Colonel Snelling) in the Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Vol. I, pp. 439-456. 

The last mentioned account was originally published as a magazine 
article, and much of it is undoubtedly the product of the author's 
imagination. It is from this that the writer drew the story of Too- 
punkah Zeze. The article by Mrs. Van Cleve is full of errors and 
there are some mistakes in Mrs. Adams's reminiscences. For the 
facts of the attack the writer depended upon the two reports in the 
Indian Office Files. In a letter written from Prairie du Chien the 
next winter Joseph Street says that a hostage, an innocent man, was 
among the Sioux who were executed. — Street to Dr. Alexander Posey, 
December 11, 1827, in the Street Papers, No. 7. 

Of those who were shot, says Sibley in his reminiscences, all re- 
covered. — Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. I, p. 475. On the 
other hand Flat Mouth complained to Schoolcraft in 1832 that four 
of the number died. — Schoolcraft's Narrative of an Expedition 
through the Upper Mississippi to Itasca Lalce, p. 85. 

328 Indian Office Files, 1829, No. 63. 

329 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 135. As here given 
the mother's speech is partly direct, and partly indirect discourse. 
The writer has changed it all to the direct discourse. 

330 The attack on Hole-in-the-Day 's band is narrated in the letter 
of Plympton to General Jones, Augiist 13, 1838. — Indian Office Files, 
1838, No. 618. See also Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, pp. 
134-136; Pond's Two Volunteer Missionaries among the DaJcotas, pp. 
136, 137. 

331 The particulars of the encounter in 1839 are given in a letter 
written by the Right Reverend Mathias Loras in July 1839, and pub- 
lished in Acta et Dicta: A Collection of historical data regarding 
the origin and growth of the Catlwlic Church in the Northwest, Vol. 
I, No. 1, pp. 18-21; and Pond's Tico Volunteer Missionaries among 
the Bakotas, pp. 139-147. 

332 ' ' Instead of lessening the disasters of Indian warfare, the 
building of Fort Snelling in the heart of the Indian country and 
upon the line dividing the ranges of the Dakotas and the Chippewas, 
had the direct effect of vastly increasing the horrors of that warfare. 



232 OLD FORT SNELLING 

Depending upon the protection of the military, both tribes brought 
their women and children into the disputed territory, where before 
tlie coming of the soldiers they would never have dared to expose 
them, and it soon developed that the fort afforded no protection to the 
children of the forest against the savagery of their hereditary en- 
emies, who made treaties of peace only to thereby gain better oppor- 
tunity for butchery. ' ' — Eobinson 's A History of the Dalota or 
Sioux Indians, p. 154. This is Part II of the South Dakota Historical 
Collections, Vol. II. 

333 At the forks of the Chippewa Eiver in 1838, eleven Sioux were 
killed while asleep, by Chippewas whom they were entertaining. The 
mission at Lake Pokegama was attacked in 1840. In 1842, a battle 
was fought at Pine Coulie near the Indian village of Kaposia. In 
1850, on Apple Eiver in Wisconsin, fourteen Chippewas were scalped. 
See the article by Eev. S. W. Pond on Indian Warfare in Minnesota 
in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. Ill, pp. 129-138. As 
late as 1854, D. B. Herriman, the Chippewa agent, reported that 
during the preceding year nearly one hundred Chippewas had been 
killed and scalped by the Sioux. But none of these massacres took 
place at the fort. — ■ Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 33rd Congress, 
Vol. I, Pt. 1, Document No. 1, p. 260. 

33i Executive Documents, 1st Session, 31st Congress, Vol. VIII, 
Document No. 51, p. 31. 

335 Taliaferro's Diary, January 23, 1831. 

336 Taliaferro's Diary, June 4, 1831. For other occasions during 
the winter and spring of 1831 when the agent records the presence 
of both Sioux and Cliippewas see the diary imder date of January 31, 
March 5, May 2, June 15. 

337 Taliaferro to Clark, July 6, 1831. — William Clarl- Papers, Cor- 
respondence, 1830-1832, p. 231. 

338 Speech of Taliaferro to the Sioux. — Taliaferro's Diary, Feb- 
ruary 19, 1831. 

339 Eeport of J. N. Nicollet in Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 
28th Congress, Vol. II, Document No. 52, p. 66. 

3io Taliaferro's Diury, January 10, 18, 26, 1831. 
341 Taliaferro to Clark, February 8, 1831. — William ClarJc Papers, 
Correspondence, 1830-1832, p. 121. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 233 

342 The text of the treaty is printed in Kappler's Indian Affairs, 
Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, pp. 250-255. The treaty was signed on 
August 19, 1825. 

3i3 Missionary Herald, Vol. XXX, p. 223, June, 1834. Eeverend 
W. T. Boutwell accompanied Mr. Schoolcraft on this journey, and his 
account of it is published in the religious paper. 

344 Schoolcraft's Narrative of an Expedition through the Upper 
Mississippi to Itasca Lalce, p. 265. 

345 United States Statutes at Large, Vol. IV, p. 684. 

346 Taliaferro to William Clark, May 31, 1835. — Taliaferro Let- 
ters, Vol. Ill, No. 234. 

347 Taliaferro to Herring, July 16, 1835. — Taliaferro Letters, Vol. 
Ill, No. 238. 

348 Taliaferro to William Clark, September 2, 1835; Taliaferro to 
E. Herring, September 20, 1835. — Taliaferro Letters, Vol. Ill, Nos. 
251, 252. 

349 Taliaferro to William Clark, May 26, 1831. — William ClarJc 
Papers, Correspondence, 1830-1832, p. 195. 

^^0 Taliaferro's Diary, January 25, 1831. 

351 Senate Documents, 1st Session, 28th Congress, Vol. I, Document 
No. 1, p. 269. 

352 Senate Documents, 1st Session, 29th Congress, Vol. I, Docu- 
ment No. 1, p. 490. 

353 The Minnesota Pioneer, January 2, 1851. 

354Snelling to Atkinson, May 31, 1S27. — Indian Office Files, 1827, 
No. 10. 

355 The Minnesota Pioneer, May 16, 1850. Other occasions when 
Indians were imprisoned for similar causes are mentioned in The 
Minnesota Pioneer, September 23, 1852, April 20, 1854. 

35C The Minnesota Pioneer, October 14, 1852. 

357 Report of Agent A. J. Bruce, September 1, 1846. — Executive 
Documents, 2nd Session, 29th Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 4, p. 
246. 



234 OLD FORT SNELLING 

3o8 Beltrami 's A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, Vol. II, pp. 
233, 234. 

359 Taliaferro's Diary, January 31, 1831; Taliaferro to Captain 
W. E. Lovett, June 30, 1831, in Taliaferro Letters, Vol. II, No. 150. 

360 Pond's Two Volunteer Missionaries among the Dalcotas, p. 138. 

361 Taliaferro to Clark, October 4, 1830. — William Clarlc Papers, 
Correspondence, 1830-1832, p. 68. 

362 Taliaferro 's Diary, June 29, 1834. 

CHAPTEE IX 

363 for an account of the attack on the trading house system see 
Quaife's Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835, pp. 301-309; 
also Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XX, pp. xiii-xviii. 

364 This account of the fur trade is based upon the reminiscences 
of Mr. H. H. Sibley in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. Ill, 
pp. 245-247; and Turner's The Cliaracter and Influence of the In- 
dian Trade in Wisconsin in the Johns Hopkins University Studies in 
Historical and Political Science, Vol. IX, pp. 601-607. 

365 If an Indian failed continually in paying up his credits, the 
trader would refuse him any more goods. This would bring on the 
enmity of the hunter and his whole family. Such was the case of 
Joseph E. Brown mentioned in the Minnesota Historical Collections, 
Vol. Ill, p. 247. 

366 United States Statutes at Large, Vol. II, pp. 139-146, Vol. Ill, 
pp. 332, 333, Vol. IV, pp. 729-735. 

36 7 A copy of an American trading license is published in the 
Beport from the Select Committee on the Hudson 's Bay Company, 
p. 282. 

368 Indian Office Files, 1831, No. 70. 

369 Indian Office Files, 1831, No. 82. 

^''0 Auto-biography of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro in the Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 200. 

371 Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XX, p. 43 

372 Sibley to Featherstonhaugh. — Sibley Papers. This letter is 
printed in Holcombe's Minnesota in Three Centuries, Vol. II, p. 57. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 235 

373 Chittenden 's The History of the American Fur Trade of the 
Far West, Vol. I, p. 323. 

374 A list of the posts in the agency in 1826 is given in the Min- 
nesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, pp. 113, 114. 

' ' The Secretary of War directs that the traders in the St Peters 
Agency, who have been directed by you to buUd their houses in a 
particular form, as designated by you, be informed that they are at 
liberty to adapt the shape of their building to their own convenience. 
He moreover directs that the term of Forts, by which they are desig- 
nated, be changed into Posts. ' ' — William Clark to Taliaferro, March 
26, 1827, in Taliaferro Letters, Vol. I, No. 72. 

375 Taliaferro to Herring, September 15, 1834, in Indian Office 
Files, 1834, No. 210; Taliaferro Letters, Vol. I, No. 74. 

376 See Sibley 's story of a tea party given to a number of traders 
at Fort Snelling. — Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. Ill, pp. 
248, 249. 

377 Coues's T1ie Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. I, p. 230. 

378 Taliaferro's Diary, February 22, 1831. 

379 Schoolcraft's Narrative of an Expedition through the Upper 
Mississippi to Itasca LaJce, p. 44. 

380 Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XX, pp. 306, 307. 

381 United States Statutes at Large, Vol. IV, p. 564. 

382 Norman W. Kittson to Sibley, March 2, 1846. — Sibley Papers, 
1840-1850. Mr. Kittson was the manager of the American Fur Com- 
pany's business along the international boundary, with his headquar-" 
ters at Pembina. He, with the late James J. Hill, was one of the 
promoters of the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Railroad Com- 
pany. 

383 Beport from the Select Committee on the Hudson 's Bay Com- 
pany, p. 370. 

384 Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XX, p. 383. 

385 Taliaferro 's Diary, January 30, 1831. 

386 Kittson to Sibley, August 7, 1846. — Sibley Papers, 1840-1850. 
Mr. Kittson was the organizer of the picturesque caravans of Red 

River carts (at one time called "Kittson's earts") which carried 



236 OLD FORT SNELLING 

on the extensive commerce between the Canadian and American settle- 
ments. At an early date this trade assumed large proportions. ' ' The 
van of the Eed Eiver train numbering from an hundred to two hun- 
dred carts made entirely of wood and green hides and drawn by oxen 
and ponies in harness, reached St. Paul on Sunday with furs, hides, 
buffalo robes, dried buffalo tongues, pemmican, etc. They have been 
forty days on the route. ' ' — The Minnesota Pioneer, July 26, 1849. 

387 Missionary Herald, Vol. 38, p. 58, February, 1842. 

388 Indian Office Files, 1839, No. 62. 

389 Missionary Herald, Vol. 40, p. 281, August, 1844. 

390 Executive Docwments, 2nd Session, 30th Congress, Vol. I, Docu- 
ment No. 1, p. 563. 

391 Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XX, p. 383. 

392 Taliaferro 's Diary, July 23, 1834. 

393 Taliaferro Letters, Vol. I, No. 74. 

394 Marsh to Street, April 28, 1832. — Street Papers, No. 20. 

395 Indian Office Files, 1835, No. 326. 

396 Bailly to Street, August 3, 1832. — Street Papers, No. 28. 

397 Street to Cass, October 3, 1832. — Street Papers, No. 69. 

398 ' ' Several persons have been arrested near Crow Wing for sell- 
ing whiskey to the Winnebago Indians; and twelve or fifteen barrels 
of whiskey have been overtaken and knocked in the head, by Capt. 
Monroe 's troops. ' ' — The Minnesota Pioneer, August 9, 1849. 

399 Senate Documents, 1st Session, 30th Congress, Vol. I, Document 
No. 1, p. 922. 

400 Taliaferro to Clark, August 17, 1830. — Indian Office Files, 
1830, No. 143. 

401 Indian Office Files, 1830, No. 140. 

402 Taliaferro to Clark, August 2, 1829. — Indian Office Files, 
1829, No. 65. 

403 Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 30th Congress, Vol. I, Docu- 
ment No. 1, p. 444. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 237 

40* Senate Documents, 1st Session, 30th Congress, Vol. I, Docu- 
ment No. 1, p. 919. 

405 The Minnesota Pioneer, May 12, 1849. 

CHAPTER X 

406 Taliaferro writes : "It was some length of time before he 
could induce the Indians to respect the Sabbath-day — all days being 
alike to them. It so happened that hundreds of important peace con- 
ventions were made and confirmed by the hostile tribes on the Lord's 
day. But time and patience brought them to reason, and for many 
years they respected the white man 's great ' medicine day. ' The sign 
given for the day of rest was the agency flag floating from the flag- 
staff, at the agency council house. ' ' — Auto-biography of Maj. Law- 
rence Taliaferro in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, 
p. 236. 

407 Mission-ary Herald, Vol. 45, p. 429, December, 1849. 

ios Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. XII, pp. 326, 327; Talia- 
ferro's Diary, August 14, 1833. 

409 Street to Taliaferro, August 12, 1829. — Taliaferro Letters, 
Vol. II, No. 108. 

i'^o Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, pp. 119-121. 

411 Taliaferro to Eaton. — Indian Office Files, 1830, No. 151. 

412 Taliaferro's Diary, April 18, May 1, June 8, 1831. 
^-^3 Taliaferro's Diary, August 14, 1833. 

414 Taliaferro's Diury, April 18, 1831. 

415 Pond's Two Volunteer Missionaries among the DaTcotas, p. iv. 

416 Auto-biography of Maj. Laivrence Taliaferro in the Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 255. 

417 Senate Documents, 3rd Session, 25th Congress, Vol. I, Document 
No. 1, p. 523. 

418 Pond's Two Volunteer Missionaries among the Dalcotas, pp. 12- 
30. This volume, written by the son of Samuel Pond, tells of the 
work of his father and uncle. 



238 OLD FORT SNELLING 

419 Pond's Two Volunteer Missionaries among the Dakotus, p. 30. 
Among the Kemper Papers (Vol. XX, No. 34) the writer found the 
following permit to enter the Indian country: 

' ' The Eight Reverend, Jackson Kemper, Missionary Bishop of the 
Protestant Episcopal Cluirch, having signified to this Department, his 
desire to visit and remain sometime in the Indian country, and re- 
quested the permission required by law to enable him to do so, such 
permission is hereby granted; and he is commended to the friendly 
attention of civil and military officers and agents, and of citizens, 
and if at any time it shall be necessary to their protection. 

Given under my hand and 
the Seal of the War Department 
this 1st day of October 1838. 
S. Cooper. 
Acting Secretary of War." 

420 Pond's Two Volunteer Missionaries among the Dalotas, pp. 31, 
32 ; Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. XII, pp. 324, 325. 

421 Taliaferro's Diary, July 7, 1834. 

422 Pond 's Two Volunteer Missionaries among the Dalotas, pp. 
38-42. 

423 Pond's Two Volunteer Missionaries among the Dalotas, p. 47. 

424 Featherstonhaugh 's A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor, Vol. 
11, p. 11. 

425 Pond's Tico Volunteer Missionaries among the Dakotas, p. 43. 

42G Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, pp. 127-146. 

427 Pond 's Two Volunteer Missionaries among the Dalcotas, pp. 
127, 133. 

42S Executive Documents, 1st Session, 31st Congress, Vol. Ill, Pt. 
II, Document No. 5, pp. 1054, 1055. 

420 Riggs's Mary and I, Forty Years with the Sioux, pp. 41, 42. 

430 Pond 's Two Volunteer Missionaries among the Dalotas, pp. 
49-59. 

431 Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 29th Congress, Vol. I, Docu- 
ment No. 4, p. 315. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 239 

432 Executive Documents, 1st Session, 32nd Congress, Vol. II, Pt. 
Ill, p. 439. 

433 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 343. 

434 Pond's Tivo Volunteer Missionaries among the Dalcotas, pp. 63, 
64. 

iS5 Missionary Herald, Vol. 41, p. 281, August, 1845; Vol. 32, pp. 
188, 189, May, 1836. 

i^c^ The Spirit of Missions, Vol. IV, p. 61, February, 1839; Tan- 
ner's History of the Diocese of Minnesota, p. 24; Post Beturns, April, 
1839, in the archives of the War Department, Washington, D. C. 

437 Gear to Kemper, Nov. 29, 1841. • — Kemper Letters, Vol. 25, No. 
103. See also The Spirit of Missions, Vol. 5, p. 68, March, 1840. 

issActa et Dicta, Vol. I, No. 1, July, 1907, pp. 14-21; Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Vol. Ill, pp. 222-230. 

CHAPTEE XI 

439Catlin's Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Con- 
dition of the North American Indians, Vol. II, p. 592. 

440 Merrick's Old Times on the Upper Mississippi, p. 187. The 
following description was given by Philander Prescott, a fur trader: 

"The Indians say they had dreamed of seeing some monster of 
the deep the night before, which frightened them very much. It 
appears they did not discover the boat until it had got into the mouth 
of the St. Peter's, below Mr. Sibley's. They stood and gazed with 
astonishment at what they saw approaching, taking the boat to be 
some angry god of the water, coughing and spouting water upwards, 
sideways and forward. They had not courage enough to stand until 
the boat came near them. The women and children took to the woods, 
with their hair floating behind them in the breeze, from the speed 
they were going, in running from supposed danger. Some of the men 
had a little more courage, and only moved off to a short distance from 
the shore, and the boat passed along and landed. Everything being 
quiet for a moment, the Indians came up to the boat again, and stood 
looking at the monster of the deep. All at once the boat began to 
blow off steam, and the bravest warriors could not stand this awful 
roaring, but took to the woods, men, women and children, with their 



240 OLD FORT SNELLING 

blankets flying in the wind; some tumbling in the brush which en- 
tangled their feet as they ran away — some hallooing, some crying, 
to the great amusement of the people on board the steamboat. ' ' — 
Quoted in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. Ill, p. 104, 
note 1. 

441 Beltrami 's A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, Vol. II, p. 
199. 

442 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, pp. 191-193. 

443 Beltrami published an account of his travels in French in New 
Orleans in 1824. The English version is entitled A Pilgrimage in 
Europe and America, leading to tlie Discovery of the Sources of the 
Mississippi and Bloody River, and was published in London in two 
volumes in 1828. It is composed of twenty-two letters addressed to 
"My Dear Countess" and dedicated "to the Fair Sex". 

Hi Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 101. 

445 The story of this exploration was published under the title of 
Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, Lake 
Winnepeek, Lake of the Woods, Etc. performed in the year 1823, by 
order of the Hon. J. C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, under the com- 
mand of Stephen H. Long, U. S. T. E. It was written by Professor 
Keating from the notes of the party. An English edition appeared 
in London in 1825. The references given are to this publication. 

446 J. c. Calhoun to Major Long. — Taliaferro Letters, Vol. I, 
No. 41. 

44T Keating 's Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. 
Peter's River, Vol. I, p. 324, Vol. II, p. 112. 

448 Keating 's Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. 
Peter's River, Vol. I, pp. 306-310. 

449 Keating 's Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. 
Peter's River, Vol. I, p. 356. 

450 Auto-biography of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro in the Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 241. 

451 Beltrami's A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, Vol. II, p. 
414. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 241 

452 "My head was covered with the bark of a tree, formed into 
the shape of a hat and sewed with threads of bark; and shoes, a coat, 
and pantaloons, such as are used by Canadians in the Indian terri- 
tories, and formed of original skins sewed together by thread made of 
the muscles of that animal, completed the grotesque appearance of 
my person." — Beltrami's A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, 
Vol. II, p. 481. For a short summary of Beltrami's work see the 
Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, pp. 183-196. 

453 Keating 's Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. 
Peter's River, Vol. II, p. 200. 

45*Catlin's North American Indians, Vol. II, pp. 599-602. 

455Catlin's North American Indians, Vol. II, pp. 602-607. This 
quotation is from page 607. 

456 Senate Documents, 1st Session, 24th Congress, Vol. IV, Docu- 
ment No. 333. 

457 Featherstonhaugh 's A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor, 
Vol. I, p. 262. 

458 Auto-biography of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro in the Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 246. 

459 Featherstonhaugh 's A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor, 
Vol. I, pp. 261, 266, 288. 

460 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. I, pp. 187, 188. 

461 Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 28th Congress, Vol. II, Doc- 
ument No. 52, p. 53. 

462 Brewer's The Mississippi Eiver and its Source which comprises 
Vol. VII of the Minnesota Historical Collections. See p. 162. 

463 Auto-biography of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro in the Minnesota 
Historical Collections, Vol. VI, pp. 242-245; Minnesota Historical 
Collections, Vol. I, p. 189. 

464 In his reminiscences John C. Fremont has left a very interest- 
ing account of these two expeditions. — Fremont's Memoirs of My 
Life, Vol. I, pp. 30-54. 

465 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. I, p. 183. 

i^e Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, pp. 129, 133, 134. 



242 OLD FORT SNELLING 

4«"Neill's The History of Minnesota (Fourth Edition), pp. 914, 
915. 

46S North Western Gazette and Galena Advertiser, June 26, 1840. 

469 North Western Gazette and Galena Advertiser, June 5, 1840. 

470 Louisville Journal quoted in the North Western Gazette and 
Galena Advertiser, June 14, 1838. 

471 Jackson Kemper was appointed missionary bishop of the North- 
west in 1835 and held the position until 1859 when he accepted the 
bishopric of Wisconsin. His papers and diaries are in the archives 
of the Wisconsin Historical Society. For an account of his work see 
Tiffany's A History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the 
United States, pp. 448, 493. 

472 Kemper Papers, Vol. XXVII, No. 113. 

473 Kemper Papers, Vol. XXVII, No. 116. 

CHAPTEE XII 

474 Journals of Congress, Vol. Ill, p. 589. 

475 United States Statutes at Large, Vol. I, p. 138. 

476 United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XVI, p. 566. 

i"'"' Beport of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1890, p. xxix. 

478 These figures are taken from an account of the proceedings of 
the council published in Niles' Eegister, Vol. XXIX, pp. 187-192. 
Taliaferro gives the number of his party as being 385 ' ' Sioux and 
Chippewas, including the interpreters and attendants." — Auto-biog- 
raphy of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro in the Minnesota Historical Col- 
lections, Vol. VI, p. 206. 

479 The text of the treaty is printed in Kappler's Indian Affairs, 
Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, pp. 250-255. 

480 These are the reasons given by the Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs in his report on December 1, 1837. — Senate Documents, 2nd 
Session, 25th Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 1, pp. 526, 527. 

481 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 129. 

482 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 131 ; Vol. VI, p. 214. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 243 



483 For an account of the life of Flat Mouth see Coues's The Ex- 
peditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. I, p. 169, note 10. 

484 Sketches of the life of Hole-in-the-Day are given in The Spirit 
of Missi07is, Vol. VIII, p. 461, December, 1843; North Western 
Gazette and Galena Advertiser, August 3, 1839; Prairie du Chien 
Patriot, June 8, 1847. 

485 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. V, p. 353. 

486 The names of the witnesses of the treaty are given in Kappler 's 
Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, p. 493. 

487 A contemporary account of the proceedings of the council pub- 
lished in the Iowa News (Dubuque), Vol. I, Nos. 11 and 14, is re- 
printed in The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. IX, pp. 

408-433. 

488 The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. IX, p. 420. 

489 Dodge to Harris, July 30, 1837. — Indian Office Files, 1837, 
No. 226. 

ioo Executive Documents, 1st Session, 31st Congi-ess, Vol. Ill, Pt. 
2, Document No. 5, p. 985. The Indians desired whiskey at the coun- 
cils. In order to prove that it was not refused because of stinginess, 
two barrels were opened at Prairie du Chien and the whiskey allowed 
to run on the ground. The old Indian Wakh-pa-koo-tay mourned the 
loss : "It was a great pity, there was enough wasted to have kept me 
drunk all the days of my life. ' ' — Wisconsin Historical Collections, 
Vol. V, p. 124. 

491 The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. IX, pp. 409, 
410. 

492 The loica Journal of History and Politics, Vol. IX, pp. 424- 
426. 

493 The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. IX, pp. 416, 
417. 

Taliaferro was violently opposed to granting any funds to the 
traders. — Auto-biography of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro in the Min- 
nesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, pp. 215, 216. 

494 The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. IX, pp. 431, 
432. 



244 OLD FORT SNELLING 

495 The text of the treaty is to be found in Kappler 's Indian 
Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, pp. 491-493. 

496 Niles' Register, Vol. LIII, pp. 81, 82; Kappler 's Indian Affairs, 
Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, pp. 493, 494. 

497 See an account of the payment in 1849 at Fort Snelling in The 
Minnesota Pioneer, September 27, 1849. 

498 Post Eeturns, November, 1852, October, 1853, October, 1854, in 
the archives of the War Department, Washington, D. C. 

CHAPTER XIII 

499 Turner 's The Significance of the Frontier in American History 
in the Annual Eeport of the American Historical Association, 1893, 
p. 211. 

500 Beltrami 'a A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, Vol. II, p. 202. 

soiNeill's The History of Minnesota (Fourth Edition), p. 453; 
Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. I, p. 468. 

502 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. Ill, p. 319. 

503 Keating 's Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. 
Peter's Eiver, Vol. II, p. 60. 

504 Much has been written on the founding of this colony and the 
romantic events connected with the struggle between the Hudson's 
Bay Company and the North West Company, in which many of the 
colonists were the innocent victims. Interesting accounts are given 
in Kingsford's The History of Canada, Vol. IX, pp. 108-150; Bryce's 
The Bemarkahle History of the Htidson's Bay Company, pp. 202- 
257; Bryce's Lord Selkirk in The Makers of Canada, Vol. V, jjp. 115- 
206; Laut's The Conquest of the Great Northwest, pp. 113-202; Min- 
nesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, pp. 75-89. 

505 There is a summary of the early trading relations of the Red 
River Colony with the American settlements in the Collections of the 
State Historical Society of North Dakota, Vol. IV, pp. 251, 252. 
The arrival of these people at Fort Snelling is noted in the Minne- 
sota Historical Collections, Vol. II, pp. 124, 127; VI, p. 350. 

506 ' ' Two families of Swiss emigrants who arrived here yesterday 
were robbed of almost everything they possessed ' '. — Snelling to 



NOTES AND EEFERENCES 245 

Taliaferro, October 19, 1824, in Taliaferro Letters, Vol. I, No. 50. 
See also the story of the Tullj children in Van Cleve's "Three Score 
Tears and Ten," Life-Long Memories of Fort SnelUng, Minnesota, 
pp. 49-61. 

507 The facts concerning the migrations of these Eed Eiver ref- 
ugees are taken from the reminiscences of Mrs. Ann Adams who was 
herself one of the travellers. — Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. 
VI, pp. 75-95. See also Chetlain's The Eed Eiver Colony. This is a 
small pamphlet written by the son of one of the refugees. 

50S Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. XIV, p. 84. 

509 Williams's A History of the City of Saint Paul, pp. 70, 71. 

510 Executive Documents, 3rd Session, 40th Congress, Vol. VII, 
Document No. 9, p. 16. 

511 EenvUle to Sibley, February 22, 1835. — Sibley Papers, 1830- 
1840. A story is told of a certain "Simple-hearted, honest fellow" 
named Sinclair. ' ' One time he was sick, at Mendota, and Surgeon 
Emerson, at the fort, sent by some one, a box of pills, for him to 
take a dose from. N. W. Kittson called on him a little while after 
this, and found that Sinclair had not only swallowed all the piUs, but 
was then chewing up the box ! " — Williams 's A History of the City 
of Saint Paul, p. 123, 

512 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, pp. 127, 129. 

513 Snelling to Taliaferro, October 19, 1824. — Taliaferro Letters, 
Vol. I, No. 50. 

514 Taliaferro 's Diary, July 13, 14, 1834 ; Indian Office Files, 1834, 
No. 239. 

515 Taliaferro's Diary, July 21, 1834. 

516 Indian Office Files, 1837, Nos. 448, 447, 445. 

517 The Auto-biography of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro in the Min- 
nesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 231. 

518 Executive Documents, 3rd Session, 40th Congress, Vol. VII, 
Document No. 9, pp. 14, 15. 

519 Executive Documents, 3rd Session, 40th Congi-ess, Vol. VII, 
Document No. 9, pp. 16, 17. 



246 OLD FORT SNELLING 

520 Executive Documents, 3rcl Session, 40th Congress, Vol. VII, 
Document No. 9, pp. 18, 23. 

521 Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 136; Williams's 
A History of the City of Saint Paul, pp. 66, 67. 

522 Executive Documents, Srd Session, 40tli Congi-ess, Vol. VII, 
Document No. 9, pp. 23, 24. 

•'■'23 Executive Documents, Srd Session, 40th Congress, Vol. VII, 
Document No. 9, pp. 26, 27. 

524 The Spirit of Missions, Vol. V, p. 335, November, 1840. A 
recent sketch of Fort Snelling states that there were ' ' no white 
neighbors except traders, agents of fur companies, refugees from civ- 
ilization and disreputable hangers-on. ' ' — Hammond 's Quaint and 
Historic Forts of North America, p. 272. Many of the evicted set- 
tlers can not be classed among these. 

525 This order is published iu Williams 's A History of the City of 
Saint Paul, p. 94. 

526 For the expulsion of the settlers see WUliams 's A History of 
the City of Saint Paul, pp. 99, 100; also, Neill's The History of 
Minnesota (Fourth Edition), p. 459. Williams (p. 100) says that in 
1849 and 1852 memorials were presented to Congi-ess by those who 
had been expelled, in which they stated that "the soldiery fell upon 
them without warning, treated them with unjustifiable rudeness, 
broke and destroyed furniture wantonly, insulted the women, and, in 
one or two instances, fired at and killed cattle. ' ' 

Father Galtier, who was there at the time, wrote: "Consequently 
a deputy marshall from Prairie du Chien was ordered to remove the 
houses. He went to work, assisted by some soldiers, and, one after 
another, unroofed the cottages, extending about five miles along the 
river. The settlers were forced to seek new homes." He makes no 
mention of personal violence. — Acta et Dicta, Vol. I, No. 1, p. 64. 

527 Williams's A History of the City of Saint Paul, p. 111. 

528 See the description of St. Paul in 1849 in Seymour's Sketches 
of Minnesota, the New England of the West, pp. 94-100. 

529 The Minnesota Pioneer, January 30, 1850. 

530 The Minnesota Pioneer, January 23, February 27, June 27, 
1850. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 247 

531 The Minnesota Pioneer, November 27, 1851. 

532 T/i.e Minnesota Pioneer, April 17, 1851. 

533 Minnesota historical Collections, Vol. XV, p. 534 ; Post Re- 
turns, July, 1855, in the archives of the War Department, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

534 Tlie Minnesota Pioneer, February 20, 27, 1850. 

535 The Minnesota Pioneer, February 6, 13, 1850; Minnesota Chron- 
icle and Register, February 10, 1851. 

536 The Minnesota Pioneer, February 13, 1850. 

537 Bishop's Floral Home; or, First Years of Minnesota, pp. 152- 
163. 

538 The Minnesota Pioneer, August 23, 1849. 

539 These two treaties were the treaty with the Sisseton and Wah- 
peton bands of Sioux at Traverse des Sioux, July 23, 1851 ; and with 
the Mdewakanton and Wahpakoota bands of Sioux at Mendota on 
August 5, 1851. — Kappler's Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. 
II, pp. 588-593. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Abercrombie, John J., fort built by, 50 

Adams, Mrs. Ann, 245 

Agency house, fire in, 101 

Agriculture (see Farming) 

Aitkin, Mr., 144 

Akin, Mr., information furnished by, 
172 

Alcohol, purchase of, 88 

American Fur Company, fort pur- 
chased from, 21; warehouse and 
store of, 81; monopoly of, 135; 
reference to, 138, 142, 188, 209 

Americans, hostility of Indians to, 
during War of 1812, 8-12; In- 
dians impressed by supremacy of, 
112-118; protection promised by, 
122 

Ammunition, giving of, to Indians, 
110 

Andrews, Joseph F., 230 

Annuities, 42, 43, 111, 126; pay- 
ment of, to Indians, 184, 185 

Apple River, massacre on, 132, 232 

Apples, purchase of, 88 

Ardourly, Jack, 100 

Armorer's shop, 77, 78, 79 

Articles of Confederation, 176 

Assiniboine River, 5 

Astor, John Jacob, 135, 209 

Atkinson, Henrj', fort named in hon- 
or of, 30; reference to, 34 

Aunt Phyllis's Cabin, 62 

Badger, The, murder of, 127 

Bailly, Alexis, 99, 188; disagreement 

between Taliaferro and, 138, 139; 

whiskey in store of, 142, 143 
Baker, Benjamin, trading house of, 

78, 79, 125, 192 
Ball-plays, 101; holding of, for Cat- 

lin, 164 
Balls, music for, 197 



Band, fund for maintenance of, 87; 
music by, 197 

Barracks, building of, 25; reference 
to, 73 ; description of, 74, 75 ; tak- 
ing of sick soldiers from, 85 

Bean, J. L., boundary line surveyed 
by, 130, 131 

Bear, hunting of, 105 

Bear dance, 164 

Bedford (Pennsylvania), 71 

Beef, 85; ration of, 109 

Beggars' dance, 164 

Belen Gate of City of Mexico, 64 

Beltrami, J. C, description of coun- 
cil by, 106, 107; reference to, 133, 
187; visit of, to Fort Snelling, 160- 
163 

Bennington (Vermont), 61 

Benton, Thomas H., 107 

Berries, gathering of, 105 

Big Eagle, 83 

Big Stone Lake, 103 

Big Thunder, 83 ; desire of, to raise 
corn, 152 

Birthplace of soldiers, 92 

Black Dog, village of, 83 

Black Hawk War, iwsition of Fort 
Snelling during, 35 

Black Hole, confinement of offenders 
in, 91, 132 

Black River, 36, 184 

Blacksmith shop, 118 

Blacksmiths, work of, 78, 155 

Blankets, giving of, to Indians, 110; 
reference to, 136 

Bliss, John H., 68, 114, 151, 153; 
punisliment inflicted by, 90, 91 ; 
statement by, 99, 100 

Bliss, Mrs. John H., 153 

Blockhouses, 74 

Blue Earth River, Winnebago reser- 
vation on, 37; reference to, 162 

251 



252 



INDEX 



Boarding-school, success of, among 
Indians, 156 

Boatmen, foreigners as, 138 

Bois brules, difficulties with, 37-40; 
location of, around fort, 188, 189 

Books, fund for purchase of, 87 

Boonesborough (Kentucky), 201 

Boston, 56, 145 

Bougainville, Louis Antoine, report 
of, 205 

Boundary line of 1825, 130, 131, 
178, 184 

Brandy, 86 

Braves, desire of, to take part in 
council, 181 

"Brazil" (steamboat), 168, 169 

Bread, character of, 86 

Bread tickets, 88 

Breakfast, 85 

Brewers, 92 

Briggs, Ansel, 41 

Brock, General, 8 

Brooke, George M., site for fort chos- 
en by, 48 

Broom, purchase of, 88 

Brown, Joseph R., 190," 191 

Brown, Private, purchases by, 88 

Brown's Falls, 81 

Bruce, Amos J., 71 

Brunson, Alfred, work of, among In- 
dians, 154 

Brunson, Ira B., 195 

Buchanan County (Iowa), 41 

Buck, Solon J., acknowledgments to, 
ix 

Buffalo, hunting of, by half-breeds, 
37, 38, 40 

Buffalo dance, 164 

"Burlington" (steamboat), 168 

Butter, purchase of, 88 

Calhoun, John C, 19, 224 

California, emigration to, 43 

Camp Cold Water, establishment of, 

27; reference to, 58, 110, 189, 190, 

212 
Camp Missouri, sickness at, 213 
Camp Pierce, 46 
Campbell, Dxmcan, 131 



Campbell, Scott, service of, as inter- 
preter, 71, 72 

Canada, 3, 8, 57, 92, 158; taking of 
furs to, 6 ; importance of fur trade 
to, 9; visits of Indians to, 37, 106; 
difficulties with half-breeds from, 
37-40; export of furs from, 207 

Canal, 20 

Canby, Edward R. S., sketch of life 
of, 63-65 

Candles, 86 

Candy, purchase of, 88 

Canister shot, 77 

Cannon, description of, 77 

Cannon River, 137 

Canoes, 199 

Cantonment Leavenworth, establish- 
ment of, 56 

Cantonment New Hope, establishment 
of, 25; removal of troops from, 27; 
reference to, 55 

Cards, playing of, 99 

Carpenters, employment of soldiers 
as, 96 

Cartridges, stock of, 77 

Carver, Jonathan, exploration by, 1 ; 
statement by, 1, 2 ; reference to, 
198 

Cass, Lewis, visit of, at Fort Snell- 
ing, 28; reference to, 137, 140, 
178; expedition of, 212 

Cat'o'nine tails, 90 

Catholic chapel, 81 

Catholics, religious work among, 158 

Catlin, George, visit of, at Fort Snell- 
ing, 163, 164 

Catlin, Mrs. George, visit of, to Fort 
Snelling, 163, 164 

Cattle, feeding of, 82, 96 

Cellars, 75 

Cemetery, 81, 89, 93 

Certificates, giving of, to Indians, 
113, 114 

Chambers, John, 182 

Chapel, 81, 195 

Chaplain, 88, 101, 194, 195; service 
of Gear as, 157 

Chatel, Mr., work of, 155, 156 

Checkers, playing of, 99 



INDEX 



253 



Cheese, purchase of, 88 

Cherokee Indians, removal of, 63, 64 

Cherubusco, Battle of, 64 

Chess, playing of, 99 

Chicago, 161 

Chiefs, giving of certificates to, 113, 
114; visit of, to Washington, 115, 
116; council with, 181 

Children, education of, at fort, 100, 
101 

Chippewa, Battle of, 55 

Chippewa Indians, early traders 
among, 3 ; reference to, 7, 48, 104, 
108, 139, 142, 144, 163, 177, 178, 
228, 231, 242; unwillingness of, 
to make treaty, 13 ; treaty between 
Sioux and, 28 ; treaty with, 45, 
176-186; land ceded by, 47, 48; 
home of, 103 ; war parties against, 
106; hostility of, 114; feuds be- 
tween Sioux and, 119-134; killing 
of, by Sioux, 121, 125; murderers 
killed by, 122-124; murder of 
Sioux warrior by, 127; battle be- 
tween Sioux and, 127, 128, 232; 
boundary line between Sioux and, 
130, 131, 178; trustworthiness of, 
134; language of, 172, 173, 174; 
siimnioning of, to council, 179 

Chippewa River, 131, 172; miirder 
of Sioux on, 232 

Choctaw Indians, removal of, 63, 64 

Choiiteavi, Auguste, activities of, as 
commissioner, 12, 13 

Christianity, influence of, 146; meth- 
od of preaching, 150, 151 

Church, organization of, at Fort 
Snelling, 157; attendance at, 194, 
195 

Churns, 76 

Civil War, use of Fort Snelling dur- 
ing, 52 ; service of Eastman in, 63 ; 
reference to, 63, 201 ; service of 
Canby in, 64 

Clark, Charlotte Ouisconsin, 23, 212 

Clark, Dan E., acknowledgments to, x 

Clark, Nathan, 21 

Clark, Mrs. Nathan, 23 

Clark, William, exi)edition under, 4, 



5 ; Fort Shelby established by, 1 1 ; 
activities of, as commissioner, 12, 
13; reference to, 69, 70, 114, 178, 
221, 228 

Clarke, Colonel, 44 

Clerks, 136 

Cloud Man, resolution of, to become 
farmer, 148; reference to, 153 

Cloves, purchase of, 88 

Coe, Alvan, coming of, to Fort Snell- 
ing, 149 

Coffee, 86 

Colhoun, James E., 161, 162 

Colors, guarding of, 85 

Columbia, Department of, 65 

Columbia Fur Company, 138 

Columbia River, 5 

Commanders of Fort Snelling, influ- 
ence of, 54 ; sketches of lives of, 
54-65 

Commanding officer, quarters of, 75 

Commerce, extent of, 205 

Commissary, office of, 75 

Commissary department, storehouse 
of, 75 

Commissioner of Indian Affairs, re- 
port of, 37; reference to, 67, 177 

Confederation, forming of, among In- 
dians, 13 

Congress, right of, to regulate Indian 
affairs, 176; memorials to, 246 

Connecticut, 1 

Contreras, Battle of, 64 

Coon, story about Scott and, 60, 61 

Cooper, S., 238 

Cooperation in fur trade, 135 

Copper, mining of, 25; block of, 175 

Corn, feeding of, to cattle, 82 ; rais- 
ing of, by Indians, 105; giving of, 
to Indians, 110 

Council, holding of, with Indians, 35, 
36, 43, 106-109, 129, 179-183 

Council Bluff (Nebraska), fort at, 
20; route of road to Fort Snelling 
from, 28, 29 ; naming of fort at, 
30; reference to, 160; sickness at, 
213 

Council Hall, description of, 106, 107 

Council House, erection of, 28; de- 



254 



INDEX 



scription of, 77; burning of, 77, 
78; rebuilding of, 78 

Coureurs des boia, activities of, 3 

Court-martial, 102 

Crane, The, 129, 228 

Crawford, Captain, 159 

Crawford County (Wisconsin) volun- 
teers from, 35 

Credit, fur trade carried on by means 
of, 136 

Creek Indians, removal of, 63, 64 

Croghan, George, visit of, to Fort 
Snelling, 100 

Cross Timbers (Indian Territory), 56 

Crow Wing, 236 

Crow Wing River, 47 

Currants, purchase of, 88 

Dahcotah : or, Life and Legends of 
the Sioux around Fort Snelling, 62 

Dana, Captain, 49 

Dance of the braves, 164 

Dances, holding of, by Indians, 164 

Dakota, Department of, 52 

Dakota Indians (see Sioux Indians) 

Dearborn, Major, 110 

Deaths, number of, at Fort Snelling, 
93 

Debts, payment of, to traders, 183, 
184 

De Courcy, Adolphiue, 100 

Deer, hunting of, 105 

Delaware County (New York), 55 

Delhi (New York), 56 

Democrats, charges of graft against, 
51 

Denny, St. Clair, 161 

Des Moines River, 18, 44 

Deserters, dangers faced by, 92 

Desertions, causes of, 91 ; prevalence 
of, 91, 92 

Details, duties of, 85 

Detroit, 11, 19; departure of troops 
from, 21 ; surrender of, 57 

Devil's Lake, 40 

Dickson, Robert, activities of, in be- 
half of English, 11; reference to, 
13, 16, 134; instructions to, 208 

Diet, description of, 85 



Dinner, 85 

Dixon, Private, desertion of, 92 

Dodge, Heniy, visit of, to Fort Snell- 
ing, 168; council of, with Indians, 
180-183 

Dog dance, 164 

Dominoes, playing of, 99 

Doty, James D., 212 

Douglas, Thomas, settlement of, 188, 
189 

Draft riots, 64 

Dragoons, expedition of, 38, 39, 45, 
216; activities of, in Iowa, 44, 45; 
service of, on survey, 46, 47; ref- 
erence to, 48, 56, 63, 186, 217; 
frontier service of, 49 ; arrival of, 
215 

Dress parade, 85 

Drummond Island, visits of Indians 
to, 13, 14 

Drunkenness, prevalence of, in gar- 
rison, 89, 90, 194; punishment for, 
90 

Dubuque, 43, 158, 216 

Dubuque, Diocese of, 158 

Ducks, 96, 97 

Dueling, 102 

Duluth, Daniel Greyloson, 3 

Dunning, William A., 215 

Eagle dance, 164 

Eastman, Marj' Henderson, writings 

of, 62 
Eastman, Seth, 35, 99, 145; sketch 

of life of, 62 
Eastman, Mrs. Seth, description by, 

94 
Eaton, John H., 149 
Eatonville (Minnesota), colony at, 

118, 149; success of colony at, 

150; Pond brothers in charge of, 

152 
Education, work of, among Indians, 

156 
"Education Families", 103 
Education of children, 100, 101 
Edwards, Ninian, activities of, as 

commissioner, 12, 13 
Eighth United States Infantry, 18 



INDEX 



255 



Elk, hunting of, 105 

Emerson, John, sketch of life of, 65, 
66; reference to, 194, 245 

Emerson, Mrs. John, 66 

Emigration, 14, 15 

England, 70 

English, riile of, in West, 2, 3 ; ac- 
tivities of, in fur trade, 3, 4, 140; 
power of, over Indians, 5-17; sup- 
port of, by Indians in War of 
1812, 8-12; medals given by, 112; 
persistence of influence of, 114, 
115; use of Indians by, 208 

English River, 42 

English trading companies, 2 

Episcopal Church, 169 

Evans, William, 190 

Exploring expeditions, 109 

Factors, 136; relations of, with of- 
ficers of fort, 138, 139 

Factory System, 107 

Fall, activities of Indians during, 
105, 106 

Falls of St. Anthony, 7, 24, 29, 30, 
86, 96, 149, 153, 198, 207; jour- 
ney of Long to, 19; plan to es- 
tablish fort near, 20 ; saw mill at, 
27, 28; fort named for, 29; road 
to, 81; description of, 81, 173, 
174; legend concerning, 81, 82; 
visits of travelers to, 159-175; at- 
tempt to cross, 161, 162 

Falstrom, Jacob, 191 

Faribault, Jean Baptiste, house of, 
80; reference to, 137, 141, 222; 
trading post of, 187, 188 

Faribault, Pelagi, 187 

Farmers, 92 ; employment of soldiers 
as, 95; work of, among Indians, 
155, 156 

Farming, efforts to introduce, among 
Indians, 148-150; work of Indians 
at, 150; assistance to Indians in, 
152, 153; instruction of Indians 
in, 155 

"Fashionable Tour", 159-175 

Fat Duty Win (Indian), 156 

"Fayette" (steamboat), 169 



Fayette County (Iowa), 41 

Featherstonhaugh, George William, 
visit of, to Fort Snelling, 153, 105, 
166 

Ferries, 14 

Feri->' house, 81 

Ferryman, 81 

Fifth United States Infantry, disem- 
barkment of, 2; orders to, 19, 20; 
location of parts of, 21 : journey 
of, to mouth of Minnesota River, 
21-24; companies of, taken to Fort 
Crawford, 32 ; reference to, 55, 58, 
59, 62, 187 

Finley, Mr., home of, 81 

Fireplaces, heating by means of, 99 

Fires, epidemic of, 101 

First United States Infantry, 58, 59, 
62 

Fishing tackle, purchase of, 88 

Flag staff, 75 

Flags, giving up of, by Indians, 6 ; 
reference to, 112; slur against, 145 

Flat Mouth, 120; career of, 179 

Flatboats, 14, 86, 199 

Flogging, 90 

Florida War, service of Eastman in, 
62; service of Canby in, 63 

Flour, 86 

Food, character of, 26, 85-87 

Folles-Avoine Indians, 205 

Fond du Lac, Department of, 6 

Foraging, 85, 96 

Foreigners, permission to, to engage 
in fur trade, 138 

Forests, 178 

Forsyth, Thomas, journey of, up Mis- 
sissippi, 22 ; presents distributed 
by, 23 ; arrival of, at mouth of Min- 
nesota River, 24 ; return trip of, 
24; reference to, 211, 228 

Fort Abercrombie, facts concerning 
early history of, 49, 50 

Fort Armstrong, construction of, 18; 
reference to, 20; garrison for, 22; 
journey of Webb to, 117 

Fort Atkinson (Iowa), dragoons from, 
35; expedition from, 38; Major 
Woods at, 41 



256 



INDEX 



Fort Atkinson (Nebraska), naming 
of, 30; sickness at, 93 

Fort Benton, 46 

Fort Bridger, 64 

Fort Calhoun (Nebraska), 20 

Fort Clarke, establishment of, 44, 45 

Fort Crawford, establishment of, 18; 
reference to, 20, 23, 59, 157, 161; 
arrival of troops at, 22 ; reenforce- 
ment of garrison of, 32, 34; re- 
moval of troops from, 33 

Fort Dearborn, massacre at, 10, 11, 
208; reference to, 18, 117; re-oc- 
cupation of, 18 

Fort Defiance, 64 

Fort Des Moines, 44 

Fort Dodge, establishment of, 44, 45 ; 
reference to, 49 

Fort Erie, 57 

Fort Gaines, 43, 48 

Fort Garry, 40, 188 

Fort Howard, erection of, 19; refer- 
ence to, 21, 211 

Fort Leavenworth, establishment of, 
56 

Fort McKay, name of Fort Shelby 
changed to, 12 ; re-occupation of 
site of, 18 

Fort Pierre, purchase of, 21; refer- 
ence to, 167 

Fort Ridgely, 49, 186 

Fort Ripley, 48 

Fort St. Anthony, 29 

Fort Shelby, establishment of, 11, 
12; capture of, by English, 12 

Fort Snelling, significance of estab- 
lishment of, 2 ; establishment and 
early history of, 18-30; range of 
influence of, 21 ; erection of, 27, 
28 ; garden at, 28 ; route of road 
to, 28, 29; naming of, 29, 30; ser- 
vice of, in protection of frontier, 
31-53; attitude of War Department 
toward, 31 ; Territorial jurisdic- 
tions over site of, 32 ; activities of 
troops at, during Winnebago out- 
break, 32-34; character and duties 
of garrison of, 34, 35; service of 
troops from, in removal of Winne- 



bagoes, 35-37; expeditions from, 
39-45; surveying party escorted by 
dragoons from, 46, 47; relation of, 
to other forts, 47 ; fort built by 
troops from, 48, 49, 50; history of 
later years of, 50-53 ; desire to lo- 
cate town on site of, 50-52 ; officers' 
training camp at, 53; biographical 
sketches of men connected with, 
54-72; Dred Scott at, 66; service 
of Indian agent at, 66-72 ; descrip- 
tion of, 73-83; view from, 79, 80; 
glimpses of garrison life at, 84- 
102; relation of, to Indian affairs, 
103-118; efforts of authorities at, 
to keep peace between Sioux and 
Chippewas, 119-134; regulation of 
fur trade by officers at, 135-139; 
regulation of liquor traffic by of- 
ficers at, 139-145; work of mission- 
aries at, 146-158; religious activi- 
ties at, 156-158 ; visits of travelers 
to, 159-175, 198; Indian treaty 
made at, 176-186; part of, in open- 
ing country to settlement, 184, 
185; part of, in settlement of West, 
187-201; settlements around, 187- 
190; removal of settlers from vi- 
cinity of, 192-195; relations be- 
tween St. Paul and, 196-198; with- 
drawal of troops from, 199; unique 
facts concerning, 201 ; arrival of 
troops at, 212, 215; oil painting 
of, 223 ; effect of, on Indian af- 
fairs, 231, 232 

Fort Sumter, 201 

Fort Ticonderoga, 201 

Fort Union, 46 

Fort William, 9 

Fort York, 189 

Forts, resistance to building of, 13 ; 
location of, 18; building of, 18-20, 
47; reference to, 136; degenera- 
tion of Indians in vicinity of, 147 

"Four Hearts", 68 

Pour Legs, attempt of, to delay troops, 
21 

Fourth United States Infantry, 56 

Fowle, Major, 34, 122 



INDEX 



257 



Fox Indians, rumor of attack by, 117; 
reference to, 205; treaty with, 208 
(see Sac and Fox Indians) 

Fox River, 19, 163 ; canal between 
Wisconsin River and, 20; ascent 
of, by troops, 21, 22 

France, 1, 92 

Franks, Mr., 209 

Fremont, John C, 167, 241 

French, rule of, in West, 2, 3 ; influ- 
ence of, over Indians, 3 ; extent of 
trade during- control of, 205 

French traders, 2 

Frontier, difficulties on, 15; plan for 
protection of, 19; service of Fort 
Snelling in protection of, 31-53; 
service of Taylor on, 59 

Fuel, use of wood for, 99 

Funerals, conduct of, 93 

Fur trade, 2, 3, 35; activities of 
English in, 3, 4, 5-17; importance 
of, to Canada, 9 ; regulation of, 
15-17, 135-139; quantity of furs 
secured in, 137; use of liquor in, 
139, 140; extent of, 205 

Fur traders (see Traders) 

Furs, taking of, to Canada, 6; sort- 
ing and packing of, 81 ; quantity 
and kind of, secured by traders, 
137; annual export of, from Can- 
ada, 207 

Gaines, Edmund P., 227 

Gale, Captain, 131 

Galena (Illinois), 32, 151, 168, 170, 

175, 190 
Galtier, Lucian, 158, 195 
Game, killing of, 42 
Garden, products of, 28; making of, 

95, 96 
Gardiner, Captain, 46 
Gardner, Lieutenant, 216 
Garrison, life of, at Fort Snelling, 84- 

102 
Grear, Ezekiel, purchases made by, 88, 

89; service of, as chaplain, 157; 

reference to, 169, 170, 173 
Geese, 96 
"General Ashley" (keel boat), 33 



"General Brooke" (steamboat), 169 

"General Fatigue", 85 

Genoa (Italy), 70 

Geological surveys, beginning of, 165 

George the Third, medals of, 112 

Gettysburg, Battle of, 63 

Ghent, negotiations at, 209 

Good Road (Chief), 83; village of, 
155 

Gooding, Mrs., 23 

Gooding, Miss, 29 

Goods for Indian trade, 136 

Goose River, 40 

Gorgets, 112, 114 

Gorman, W. A., 197 

Graft, charges of, 51 

Graham's Point, 50 

Grant, Peter, trading post of, 206 

Grapeshot, 77 

Gray, A., report by, 8 

Great Britain, exploration of domain 
of, 1 ; diplomatic correspondence 
with, 140 

Great Lakes, 2, 103 

Green, Piatt Rogers, marriage of, 29; 
reference to, 83 

Green Bay, 4, 21, 138; fort on, 19; 
fur trade at, 205 

Greenly, Mr., 43, 44 

Greenough, I. K., 101, 143 

Green's Villa, 82 

Grist mill, 82 

Grooms, Mr., 142, 151 

Groseilliers, Medard Chuart, explora- 
tion by, 3 

Guardhouse, 75 

Gull Lake, 179 

Guns, giving of, to Indians, 110 

Half-breeds, difficulties with, 37-40; 

reference to, 157, 184; location of, 

around fort, 188, 189 
Hamilton, Mrs. Alexander, visit of, 

to Fort Snelling, 168 
Hannibal (negro servant), 90 
Harness, 75 

Harriet (negro woman), 66 
Harriman, D. B., 232 
Harrison, William H., 57 



258 



INDEX 



Harrodstown (Kentucky), 201 

Hartford (Connecticut), 21 

Hastings (Minnesota), 26 

Hay, raising of, 96 

Hays, John, 190 

Heald, Nathan, 10 

Heiskell, William King, Fort Snelling 
reservation sold by, 51 

Hennepin, Louis, 3 

Henry, Alexander, 206 

Herring, Elbert, 221 

Hiatvatha, 62 

Higby, James, 196 

"Highland Mary", 43 

Hill, James J., 235 

Hivernants, 136 

Hole-in-the-Day, 124, 126, 129, 228, 
231; career of, 179, 180 

Holland, 92 

Homesickness, 25 

Horses, feeding of, 85; raising of 
hay for, 96; exchange of, for liquor, 
141 

Hospital, 75; taking of sick soldiers 
to, 85; number of soldiers in, 93 

Howitzers, 77 

Hudson's Bay, 189 

Hudson's Bay Company, 8, 140, 188, 
206, 244 

Huggins, Alexander G., 154 

Hull, William, 10, 57; surrender of 
Detroit by, 57, 58 

Hunt, Abigail, marriage of, 57 

Hunting, skill of Scott in, 60, 61 ; 
success of soldiers in, 96, 97; ac- 
tivities of Indians in, 105, 106; 
reference to, 111, 188; efforts to 
supplement, by farming, 148 

Hunting grounds, 82 

Hunting parties, size of, 38; encoun- 
ters by, 129; watching of, by In- 
dian agent, 129, 130 

Illinois, admission of, 15; Indian out- 
break in, 32-34 

Illinois River, 177 

Indian affairs, regulation of, 34, 35, 
67 ; relation of Tort Snelling to, 
103-118, 231 



Indian agency, buildings of, 77; pro- 
posed removal of, 78 ; councils with 
Indians at, 106-109 

Indian agent, protection for, 18; ser- 
vice of Taliaferro as, 66-71; re- 
lation between military authorities 
and, 67; house of, 77, 78; task of, 
103, 104; visit of Indians to, 111; 
aid given to sick Indians by. 111, 
112; efforts of, to promote peace 
between Sioux and Chippewas, 119- 
134; service of, as mediator, 191, 
192; reference to, 220 

Indian ball, 101 

Indian country, preparations for 
march into, 93-95 

Indian dances, holding of, for Cat- 
lin, 164 

Indian schools, 118 

Indian Territory, removal of Indians 
to, 63, 64 

Indian Tribes of the Vnited States, 
History, Conditions, and Future 
Prospects of the, 62 

Indian villages, 83 

Indiana, admission of, 15; reference 
to, 63 

Indians, influence of French traders 
over, 3 ; trade of English with, 4 ; 
power of English over, 5-17, 114, 
115; support of British by, in War 
of 1812, 8-12; treaties with, 12, 
13; sending of presents to, 13, 23; 
visits of, to Driimmond Island, 13, 
14; proposals for dealing with, 15; 
regiilation of trade with, 15-17; re- 
fusal of, to supply troops with 
food, 26; relation of Fort Snell- 
ing to, 31 ; hostility of, 32-34 ; op- 
position of, to half-breeds, 37; 
power of agents over, 67 ; tepees 
of, 73; blacksmith work for, 78; 
legend of, concerning Falls of St. 
Anthony, 81, 82; treatment of de- 
serters by, 92, 93 ; plan for civili- 
zation of, 103; number of, around 
Fort Snelling, 103, 104; character 
of life among, 104-106; councils 
with, at Fort Snelling, 106-109; 



INDEX 



259 



effect of military display on, 108, 
109; relief of sufferings of, 109, 
110; visit of, to agent, 111; help 
to, in sickness. 111, 112; vaccina- 
tion of, 112; evidence of power cf 
government given to, by Fort Snell- 
ing, 112-118; medals and certifi- 
cates given to, 113, 114; influence 
of Fort Snelling over, 116-118; reg- 
ulation of fur trade with, 135-139; 
goods used in trade with, 136; ef- 
forts to suppress liquor traffic with, 
139-145; evil effects of liquor on, 
141 ; work of missionaries among, 
146-158; degeneration among, 147; 
log village for, 149 ; work of, at 
farming, 150; assistance to, in 
farming, 152, 153 ; boarding-school 
for, 156; effect of religious work 
among, 158; paintings of, by Cat- 
lin, 163, 164; relations of United 
Stat«s with, 176-178; speeches by, 
181, 182; disputes between settlers 
and, 191, 192 ; drunkenness among, 
194; use of, by British, 208; plans 
for permanent territory for, 209 ; 
respect of, for Sabbath, 237; steam- 
boats feared by, 239, 240 

Indigo, purchase of, 88 

Intemperance, prevalence of, in gar- 
rison, 89, 90 

Interior, Department of, Indian af- 
fairs placed under control of, 67 

Interpreter, service of Campbell as, 
71, 72; danger to, from fire, 78; 
activities of, 129, 130, 131; ser- 
vice of Renville as, 161 

Interpreters, foreigners as, 138 

"lone" (steamboat), 169 

Iowa, journey of Kearny across, 29; 
removal of Winnebagoes from, 35, 
36, 47; expeditions from Fort 
Snelling into, 41-45 

Iowa, Territory of, 32, 158 

Iowa City, Major Woods at, 41, 42; 
reference to, 43 ; description of, 216 

Iowa County, petition from, 41 

Iowa Indians, 177; treaty with, 208 

Iowa River, difficulties with Indians 



along, 41, 42-44; departure of In- 
dians from, 44 

Ireland, 92 ; immigrants from, 189 

Iron, mining of, 25 

Irving, Washington, 14 

Izard, George, 57 

Jack, Captain, war with, 65 

Jackson, Andrew, 15 

Jail, use of, 196 

James, Edward, settlers removed by, 
195 

James River, 116 

Jar\'is, Doctor, 112 

Jefferson, Thomas, statement of, con- 
cerning trade, 4 

Jesuits, work of, 146 

Jewellers, 92 

Jews' harps, giving of, to Indians, 
107 

Johnson, George, 118 

Johnson Coiinty (Iowa), 41 

Kansas State Historical Society, 221 

Kaposia, 83, 152; missionary at, 154; 
abandonment of mission at, 155; 
school at, 156; battle near, 232 

Kearny, Stephen Watts, survey of 
route for military road by, 29 

Keating, William H., 161, 162 

Keelboats, 86 

Kemper, Jackson, letters describing 
visit of, to Fort Snelling, 169-175; 
reference to, 238, 242 

Kentucky, settlement of, 14; refer- 
ence to, 15, 63 

Kickapoo Indians, treaty with, 208 

Kinzie, John, 117 

Kitchens, 75 

Kittson, Norman W., 140, 235, 245 

Knives, 136 

La Baye, 205 

Laborers, 92 

Lac du Flambeau, 118 

Lac du Traverse, 16 

Lac qui Parle, 110, 116, 144, 154, 

155 
Laidlaw, William, 138 



260 



INDEX 



Lake Calhoun, 82, 96, 118, 133, 148, 
153, 154; mission on, 83 

Lake Harriet, 82, 96, 127, 154, 198; 
Indian boarding-school at, 156 

Lake Huron, 13, 14, 19, 21 

Lake Itasca, 167 

Lake Julia, 163 

Lake Michigan, 17, 19, 21 

Lake Mini-Waken, 40 

Lake of the Isles, 82, 96 

Lake of the Woods, 16, 140, 209 

Lake Pepin, 23, 24, 29, 93, 1412, 171, 
172, 212 

Lake Pokegama, 232 

Lake St. Croix, 128 

Lake Superior, trading posts on, 6 ; 
reference to, 9, 47, 160, 162, 172 

Lake Traverse, 103, 116 

Lake Winnebago, 21 

Lake Winnipeg, 4, 162, 189, 205 

Lakes, himting in region of, 82, S3 

Landing at Fort Snelling, description 
of, 73 

Lands, questions concerning, 111 

Land's End, 138 

Land-seekers, effect of coming of, 117, 
118; land cessions iirged by, 176 

Latrobe, Charles Joseph, 223 

"Laughing Water," 82 

Laundresses, quarters of, 75 

Lead mines, 178 

Leavenworth, Henrj-, 21, 29, 63, 190, 
211; message of, to Indian chief, 
21, 22; journey of, to mouth of 
Minnesota River, 22-24; arrival of, 
at mouth of Minnesota River, 24 ; 
return of, to Prairie du Chien, 24; 
camp moved by, 27; successor to, 
27; sketch of life of, 55, 56 

Lee, Francis, 49 

Leech Lake, Pike at, 6 ; trading post 
on, 6; reference to, 130, 179 

Legend concerning Falls of St. An- 
thony, 81, 82 

Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The, 14 

Lewis, Meriwether, expedition under, 
4, 5 ; reference to, 72 

Library, purchase of books for, 87; 
reference to, 99 



Licenses, granting of, to traders, 16, 
137, 138 

Linn County (Iowa), 41 

Liquor, 86; effect of, on Indians, 
129, 141; suppression of traffic in, 
129; power of, among Indians, 139, 
140; prices charged for, 141, 142; 
destruction of, 143, 144 

Liquor traffic, regulation of, 139-145 

Little Crow, 68, 116, 117, 132, 155 

Little Falls (Minnesota), 6, 81 

Little Thunder, 118 

Lockwood, Judge, 170 

Ijog cabins, erection of, 25 

Log village for Indians, 149 

Long, Stephen H., site for fort ap- 
proved by, 19; reference to, 95; 
expedition of, to upper Mississippi, 
160-163 

Longfellow, Henry W., 62 

Lookout platform, 74 

Loomis, Gustavus, 36, 156, 166; pun- 
ishment inflicted by, 90 

Loras, Mathias, 127, 231; activities 
of, at Mendota, 158 

Lords of the North, 54-72 

Louisiana, transfer of, 7 

Louisiana Purchase, effect of, 4 

Louisville (Kentucky), 169 

Lover's rock, 172 

Lower Red Cedar Lake, trading post 
on, 6 

"Loyal Hanna" (steamboat), 169 

Lumber, making of, 27, 28, 82 

McCain, H. P., acknowledgments to, ix 

M'Gillis, Hugh, 6 

McGregor, John R., 196 

McKenny, T. L., 17 

McKen'zie, Kenneth, trading house 

bought by, 79; reference to, 138 
McLean, Nathaniel, 71, 220 
McMahon, Doctor, 121 
McNeil, Colonel, 117 
Mackinac, capture of, by British, 9, 

10; reference to, 11, 12, 18, 118, 

146, 201, 209; transfer of. to 

Americans, 18 
Madison, James, 12 



INDEX 



261 



Magazine, 74 ; contents of, 76, 77 

Ma-ghe-ga-bo, 182, 183 

MagTuder, William T., 63, 186 

Mahoney, Sergeant, purchases made 
by, 89 

Mail, carrying of, to Fort Snelling, 
97-99, 101 

Maize, raising of, 95 

"Malta" (steamboat), 169 

Man-of-the-sky, 133 

Mandan (North Dakota), 5 

Mandan Indians, Lewis and Clark 
among, 5 ; reference to, 206 

Maple sugar, 120 

March, preparations for, 93-95 

Marengo (Iowa), difficulties with In- 
dians near, 42, 43 

Marion (Iowa), 42 

Marquette, Jacques, 3, 146 

Marryat, Frederick, visit of, to Fort 
Snelling, 168, 229 

Marsh, John, letter from, 33 ; ser- 
vice of, as tutor, 100, 101 

Marston, Major, 22 

Massacre of 1862, 118 

Massy, Louis, 192 

Mather, William Williams, visit of, 
to Fort Snelling, 165 

Mdewakanton Sioux Indians, treaty 
with, 247 

Meals, character of, 85-87 

Medals, giving up of, by Indians, 6; 
giving of, by English, 112; giving 
of, by United States, 113, 114; 
slur against, 145 

Mendota, treaty of, 49, 247; settle- 
ment at, 80, 81 ; headquarters of 
fur trade at, 135, 136; factor at, 
139; reference to, 142, 212, 223, 
245; religious activities at, 157, 
158; traders at, 188 

Menominee Indians, unwillingness of, 
to make treaty, 13; reference to, 
177 

Mess-rooms, 75 

Mexican War, services of Taylor in, 
59; services of Scott in, 61; ref- 
erence to, 63; service of Canby in, 
64 



Mexico, City of, 64, 197 

Michigan, Territory of, 32 

Military frontier, for^vard movement 
of, 17, 18 

Military posts, establishment of, 2 ; 
permission for establishment of, 7 

Military reservation, 192 ; removal of 
settlers from, 192-195 

Military road, survey of route for, 
28, 29 

Military rules, severity of, 91 

Mille Lac, 180 

MiUer, John, 19 

Mills, 82, 149; guarding of, 96 

Minneapolis, real estate speculation 
at, 50 

Minnehaha Creek, 27 

Minnehaha Falls, 62, 96, 127, 198 

Minnesota, Indians in, 103; diocese 
of Dubuque extended over, 158; 
reference to, 177 

Minnesota, Territory of, 32, 216; or- 
ganization of, 196 

Minnesota River, Carver on, 1; ref- 
erence to, 2, 21, 30, 31, 47, 55, 
74, 106, 110, 111, 118, 121, 138, 
140, 146, 154, 155, 185, 187, 207; 
cession of land at mouth of, se- 
cured by Pike, 7, 8; promise of 
trading house at mouth of, 17; se- 
lection of site for fort' at mouth of, 
19; arrival of troops at mouth of, 
24, 212; fort located at junction 
of Mississippi River and, 27; con- 
centration of Sioux Indians along, 
49; scenery at mouth of, 79, 80; 
Indian villages on, 83; clearing of 
timber from banks of, 99; expedi- 
tion up, 162 ; name of, 206 

Minnesota Valley, settlement of, 39; 
geological survey in, 165 

Mission, 83 

Missionaries, 3, 118, 146-158; meth- 
ods of, suggested by Taliaferro, 
150, 151; service of, 199 

Missionary societies, 145 

Missions, activities at, 155 

Mississippi River, Carver on, 1; ref- 
erence to, 2, 13, 15, 21, 30, 48, 



262 



INDEX 



55, 58, 74, 103, 107, 120, 126, 
129, 1?,1, 135, 143, 158, 167, 179, 
187, 205, 207; foreign jurisdictions 
over country west of, 2, 3 ; expedi- 
tion of Pike up, 4 ; activities of 
British traders on, 5-8; cession of 
land on, secured by Pike, 7, 8 ; 
treaties with Indians on, 12, 13; 
proposed trading posts on, 17 ; 
forts on, 18, 19; fort located at 
j\inction of Minnesota River and, 
27; exploration of, by Cass, 28; 
scenery along, 79, 80; road along, 
81 ; Indian villages on, 83 ; low 
water in, 86 ; seizure of liquor on, 
144; first steamboat on upper, 159, 
160; attempt to find source of, 
163; discovery of source of, 167; 
advertisements of trip on, 168, 
169; description of journey up, 
169-175; reasons for cession of 
land east of, 178, 179; cession of 
land east of, 182-185, 192; mili- 
tary reservation on, 193 

Mississippi Valley, settlement of, 39; 
erection of military posts in, 47; 
work of missionaries in, 146; open- 
ing of, to settlement, 185; refer- 
ence to, 200 

Missouri, increase in population of, 
15 ; reference to, 66 

Missouri, Territory of, 29, 32 

Missouri Compromise, 66 

Missouri Fur Company, murder of 
employees of, 113 

Missouri Indians, 116 

Missouri River, 2, 3, 6, 13, 21, 30, 
37, 46, 56, 72, 107, 112, 113, 116, 
135, 138, 148, 167, 205, 216, 230; 
English traders on, 4; Lewis and 
Clark expedition on, 4, 5; treaties 
with Indians on, 12, 13; forts on, 
19, 20; return of Sacs and Foxes 
from, 42 ; removal of Indians to, 44 

Modoc Indians, war with, 65 

Molino del Rey, Battle of, death of 
Scott in, 60, 61, 62 

Moncrief, W. T., 226 

Monroe, James, 36, 49, 186, 236 



Monsieur Tonson, 100 

"Monsoon" (steamboat), 169 

Montreal, activities of merchants of, 4 

Moores, Hazen, 143 

Morgan's Bluff, 89 

Morrill, Mr., 50 

Morse, Jedidiah, plan of, for civilizing 

Indians, 103, 118 
Mud Lake, 125, 191 
Mumford, Mr., 101 
Murderers, surrender of, by Indians, 

113; killing of, by Chippewas, 122- 

124; punishment of, 125, 126, 132 
Murphy, R. G., 71, 145 
Musick, Peter, killing of cattle of, 

191 
Musket flints, 77 
Muskrat furs, exchange of, for liquor, 

142 
Muskrats, trapping of, 105 
Mutinies, causes of, 91 

Nadin, complaint of, 181 

Nadoueseronoms, 119 

Navajo Indians, expedition against, 
64 

Needles, purchase of, 88 

Nelson River, 189 

Neutral Ground, removal of Winne- 
bagoes from, 47 

New Mexico, 64 

New Orleans, 56 

New Ulm (Minnesota), 49 

New York City, 56, 145, 172, 175; 
draft riots in, 64 

Niagara Falls, 55, 173 

Nichols, R. C, building of Fort Arm- 
strong by, 18 

Nicollet, Jean, exploration by, 3 

Nicollet, Joseph N., explorations by, 
166, 167; reference to, 180 

Nine Mile River, 174 

Nokay River, 48 

North, Lords of, 54-72 

North Dakota, 40 

North West Company, activities of, 
4 ; traders of, 5 ; extent of com- 
merce of, 6; reference to, 8, 9, 10, 
244 



INDEX 



263 



Northern Pacific Survey, 46 
Northwest, period of foreign rule in, 
1-17; reference to, 18; importance 
of Fort Snelling in, 55, 118; 
guardian of, 30; work of mission- 
aries in, 146-158; coming of first 
steamboat to, 159, 160; missionary 
bishop of, 169, 242; part of Fort 
Snelling in development of, 199, 
200; meaning of term, 205 

Oak Grove, mission at, 155 

Oats, raising of, 95 

O'Fallon, Benjamin, 16 

Officer of the day, 85 

Ofacers' Mess, 88 

Officers' quarters, deseriptioif of, 75; 
fire in, 101 

Officers' Training Camp, 53 

"O. H. Perry" (keelboat), 33, 34 

Ojibway Indians, home of, 103 

Old Northwest, settlement of, 14; ref- 
erence to, 205 

Oliphant, Laurence, 222 

Oliver, Lieutenant, experiences of, 26 

Orderly-room, 75 

Ordnance, alleged lack of, 76; stock 
of, 76, 77 

Ordnance sergeant, quarters of, 75 

Ordway, John, 206 

Oregon treaty, 46 

Orphan asylum, 118 

Orphans, fund for relief of, 87 

Osage Indians, treaty with, 208 

Ottawa Indians, 177 

Otter furs, exchange of, for liquor, 
142 

Otter Tail Lake, 37, 131 

Otto, Helen, acknowledgments to, x 

Pacific Coast, emigration to, 45 ; ne- 
cessity of railroad to, 46 ; survey 
of route for railroad to, 46, 47 

Pacific Northwest, 205 

Page, Captain, 36 

Painted rock, 175 

Painters, 92 

"Palmyra" (steamboat), 168 

Paper, purchase of, 88 



Papermakers, 92 

Parade ground, 73 ; sweeping of, 85 

Parkman, Francis, 146 

Parties, holding of, 100, 101 

Pattern farms, 103 

Patterson, Robert, visit of, to Fort 
Snelling, 164 

Pawnee Indians, campaign against, 
56 

PajTuaster, office of, 75 

Peace conferences between Indians, 
131 

Peace pipe, 107; sriioking of, 126 

Pelzer, Louis, vii 

Pembina, hunting party from, 38; 
expedition to, 39, 40, 45; refer- 
ence to, 140, 163 

Pemmican, making of, 37 

Peoria (Illinois), 99 

Pepper, purchase of, 88 

Perrot, Nicholas, 3 

Perry, Abraham, 192 

Perry, Mrs. Abraham, 193 

Pe-she-ke, speech by, 183 

Pettijohn, Eli, purchase made by, 88 

Phelan, Edward, 190 

Philadelphia, 161, 164 

Physician at Fort Snelling, sketch of 
life of, 65, 66 ; service of, to set- 
tlers, 190, 191 

Piankashaw Indians, treaty with, 208 

Picnic grounds, 82 

Picnics, 96 

Pike, Zebulon M., expedition under, 
4 ; activities of English traders in- 
vestigated by, 5-8 ; cession of land 
secured by, 7, 8; reference to, 11, 
22, 139, 146, 179, 192, 193; 
promise made by, 17 

Pike's Island, 187 

Pillager band of Chippewas, treaty 
with, 45; reference to, 179, 182 

Pilot Knob, 80 

Pine Bend, 86 

Pine Coulie, 232 

Pine timber, 172 

Pinisha, 83 

Pipestone quarry, trip to, 167 

Pioneers, protection of, against In- 



264 



INDEX 



dians, 116; (.oiniiig of, 199 (see 
Settlers) 

Pittsburgh, 160 

Plattsburg, 57 

Pleasures of soldiers, 96, 97 

Plympton, J., 65, 125, 126, 192, 193 

Poage, Sarah, 154 

Poinsett, J. R., 194 

Police guard, 85 

Pond, Gideon, coming of, to Fort 
Snelling, 151; work of, among In- 
dians, 152-156 

Pond, S. W., 72, 103; coming of, to 
Fort Snelling, 151 ; work of, among 
Indians, 152-156 

Pontiac's conspiracy, 3 

Pope, John, 215 

Pork, 86; ration of, 109; giving of, 
to Indians, 110 

Portage des Sioux, 17 

Post fund, 87 

Post school, 75; fund for mainten- 
ance of, 87; organization of, 101 

Potatoes, raising of, 95 

Potosi (Wisconsin), 170, 173 

Pottawattamie Indians, 42, 177; 
treaty with, 208 

Poupon, Isadore, 230 

Powder, stock of, 77 

Poweshiek (Chief)", 44 

Prairie du Chien, 11, 16, 20, 21, 26, 
32, 33, 34, 41, 58, 66, 92, 122, 
140, 142, 149, 161, 164, 170, 172, 
173, 181, 187 195, 243, 246; es- 
tablishment of Fort Shelby at, 11, 
12 ; capture of, by British, 12 ; 
round-about route to, 13 ; Fort 
Crawford at, IS; arrival of troops 
at, 22 ; return of Leavenworth to, 
24 ; carrying of mail between Fort 
Snelling and, 97-99, 101; treaty 
made at, in 1825, 130, 177, 178 

Preemption, 192 

Prescott, Philander, 212 

Presents, giving of, to Indians, 13, 
23, 107, 111 

President of United States, 16 

Prevost, George, 8 

Prices, fixing of, 87 



Prison, number of soldiers in, 91 
Prisoners, guarding of, 85 
Provencalle, Louis, 143 
Provisions, distribution of, to In- 
dians, 110; character of, 213 
Pump, 74 

Punishments, character of, 90, 91 
Puthui¥, William H., 209 

Qunife, Milo M., acknowledgments to, 
ix 

Quarrels in garrison, 102 

Quarrj-ing, employment of soldiers at, 
96 

Quartermaster, trouble between physi- 
cian and, 65, 66; office of, 75 

Quebec, 118, 208 

Radisson, Pierre Esprit, exploration 

by, 3 ; reference to, 119 
Railroad, suiwey of route for, 46, 47 
Rainville, Mr., 229 
Raisins, purchase of, 88 
Ramsey, Alexander, 36, 182; treaty 

made by, 45 ; council called by, 

131, 132 
Rations, character of, 85-87, 109; 

reference to, 95; issuance of, to 

Indians, 181, 182 
Real estate speculation, 50 
Reconnoitering, 85 
Red Bird, hostility of Indians under, 

33, 34 
Red Bird War, 214 
"Red Head," 108, 228 
Red River carts, caravans of, 235, 

236 
Red River of the North, trading posts 

on, 4, 206; reference to, 16, 49, 

50, 103, 138, 151, 188, 205, 236; 

difficulties with half-breeds from, 

37-40; expeditions to, 38-40, 162; 

Lord Selkirk's colony on, 188 
Red River Trail, 46 
Red Wing (Chief), 92; village of, 

171, 172; payment of annuities to 

Indians under, 185 
Regulations for the Army, General, 

84, 86 



INDEX 



265 



Renville, Daniel, 156 

Renville, Joseph, 138, 191; service 

of, as interpreter, 161 
Renville, Rosalie, 156 
Republicans, charges of graft made 

by, 51 
Reveille, 84 

Revival, success of, 156 
Reynolds, Lieutenant, 86 
Riggs, S. R., 144 
Road to Fort Snelling, 73, 81 
Robertson, Mr., work of, 155, 156 
Robertson, Gustavus A., 156 
Rock Island, building of fort on, 18; 

garrison for fort on, 22 ; reference 

to, 117 
Rock River, hostility of Indians on, 

12, 13 
Rocky Mountains, 16 
Roll call, 84, 85; punishment for ab- 
sence from, 90 
Round Tower, Old, 72 ; description 

of, 74 
Routine duties, description of, 84, 85 
Rum, 86; evil effect of, 139 
Rum River, 27, 101, 130; battle on, 

128 
Runners, sending of, to Indian 

camps, 130 
Rupel, J. B. F., 143 
Ryerson, Private, purchases by, 88 

Sabbath, respect of Indians for, 237 
Sac Indians, hostility of, 13; pursuit 

of, 35; reference to, 205; treaty 

with, 208 
Sac and Fox Indians, 35, 42, 177; 

return of, to Iowa, 42 
St. Anthony (Minnesota), real estate 

specTilation at, 50 
St. Croix River, trading posts on, 6; 

cession of land at mouth of, 8 ; 

reference to, 126, 172, 174, 175, 

180, 207 
St. Joseph's, 10 
St. Lawrence River, 205 
St. Louis, 4, 5, 11, 22, 48, 56, 58, 

69, 72, 120, 159, 162, 169, 170, 

172, 213, 228; troops from, 34; 



bringing of supplies from, 86 

St. Paul, 36, 46, 71, 216, 236; real 
estate speculation at, 50 ; founding 
of, 195, 196; relations between 
fort and, 196-198 

St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba 
Railroad Company, 235 

St. Peter's, 170, 172, 173, 175, 206 

St. Peter's agency, service of Talia- 
ferro at, 68-71 

St. Peter's River (see Minnesota 
River) 

St. Vincent (Minnesota), 206 

Salt, 86 

Sandy Lake, trading post on, 6; ref- 
erence to, 114, 120, 180 

Sanford, John F. A., Dred Scott 
bought by, 66 

Santa Fe Trail, dangers on, 56 

Sauk River, 133 

Sault Ste. Marie, 119, 163 

Saw mill, erection of, 27; reference 
to, 82, 172 

Saxton, Lieutenant, 46 

Say, Thomas, 161, 162 

Scalp dance, 123, 128, 131, 132 

Scalps, taking of, 128 

Scenery, description of, around Fort 
Snelling, 79, 80 

School, organization of, 101 

Schoolcraft, Henry R., statement by, 
14; reference to, 119, 130 

Schools, success of, among Indians, 
156 

Scientific expeditions, 109 

Scotland, 92; immigrants from, 189 

Scott, Dred, fugitive slave case of, 66 

Scott, Martin, sketch of life of, 59-62 

Scott, Winfield, naming of Fort Snel- 
ling suggested by, 29, 30; refer- 
ence to, 55 

Scott vs. Sanford, 66 

Scrub brush, purchase of, 88 

Scurvj', ravages of, 26, 213 

Second United States Infantry, 63 

Secretary of War, 19, 103, 130, 149 

Selkirk, Lord, colony of, 188, 189 

Settlement, opening up country to, 
184, 185 



266 



INDEX 



Settlements, protection for, 18 

Settlers, annoyance of, by Indians, 
42, 43; desire of, for land cession, 
178; service of Fort Snelling: to, 
187-201; disputes between Indians 
and, 191, 192; memorial of, 192; 
efforts to exclude from reservation, 
192-195; ejectfon of, 195, 246 

Seymour, Samuel, 161 

Shakopee (Minnesota), 83 

Shakpay, 83 

Shambaugh, Benj. F., introduction by, 
V ; acknowledgments to, vii, ix 

Shapaydan, 83 

Shaw, Mr., 22 '. 

Sherman, i\V. T/)' military career of, 
63 

Sheyenne River, 103, 138 

Shields, James, 197 

Shining Mountains, 3 

Shipler, Jacob, 196 

Shoemakers, 92 

Shoes, purchase of, 88 

Shot, stock of, 77 

Sibley, General, 64 

Sibley, Henry H., description by, 26, 
27; house of, 80; hunting by, 96, 
97; reference to, 110, 145, 180, 
213, 231, 239; relations between 
officers of fort and, lS9 

Sibley House, 223 

Sick, taking of, to hospital, 85 

Sickness, prevalence of, among troops, 
26, 213; losses because of, 93; help 
to Indians in case of. 111, 112 

Sinclair, Mr., 245 

Sioux Indians, early traders among, 
3 ; land at mouth of Minnesota 
ceded by, 7, 8 ; visits of, to Drum- 
mond Island, 13, 14; goods sent 
to, 22 ; treaty between Chippewas 
and, 28; unfriendliness of, 33; 
part of, in Black Hawk War, 35; 
hostility between half-breeds and, 
37; reference to, 48, 98, 101, 151, 
158, 171, 177, 178, 179, 180, 
184, 198, 205, 229, 231, 242; 
concentration of, 49 ; massacre by, 
52, 83 ; visit of, to Washington, 



68; villages of, 83; home of, 103; 
number of, 103, 104; migrations 
of, to Canada, 106; vaccination of, 
112; hostility of, 114; disillusion- 
ment of, 115; influence of Fort 
Snelling over, 116-118; rumor of 
attack by, 117; feuds between 
Chippewas and, 119-134; killing of 
Chippewas by, 121, 125; surrender 
of murderers by, 122, 125, 126; 
battle between Chippewas and, 127, 
128, 232; boundary line between 
Chipi^ewas and, 130, 131, 178; 
imprisonment of, 132; untrust- 
worthiness of, 134; temperance 
society among, 145 ; farmer for, 
155; language of, 174; delegation 
of, to Washington, 179; treaty 
made by, 184, 247; payment of 
annuities to, 185, 186; amount of 
land ceded by, in 1805, 207 
Sioux of the Lakes, treaty with, 208 
Sioux of St. Peter's River, treaty 

with, 208 
Sioux-Chippewa boundary line, 48 
Sioux language, school books in, 156 
Sisseton Sioux Indians, 113, 129, 

228; treaty with, 247 
Sixth United States Infantry, com- 
pany of, in Iowa, 44 ; reference to, 
48, 57, 63, 197; frontier service 
of, 49 
Skunk River, 42 
Smallpox, efforts to check, 112 
Smith, C. F., expedition under, 40; 
site for fort recommended by, 49, 
50 
Smith. William R., 180 
Smuggling of whiskey, 142, 143 
Snelling, Josiah, building of fort by, 
27, 28; letter by, 28; activities of, 
during Winnebago outbreak, 32-34; 
reference to, 55, 96, 100, 102, 117, 
132, 142, 163, 190; sketch of life 
of, 56-59 ; punishments inflicted 
by, 90; description by, 113; evil 
effects of liquor described by, 140, 
141 
Snelling, Mrs. Josiah, 100, 160 



INDEX 



267 



Snelling, William J., 102, 163 

Soap, 86; purchase of, 88 

Social life, 99-102 

Soiree, 101 

Soldiers, building of fort by, 27; 
surroundings of, at Fort Snelling, 
73-83 ; life of, at Fort Snelling, 
84-102; occupation of, 92; birth- 
place of, 92 ; journeys into Indian 
country enjoyed by, 93-95; em- 
ployments of, 95, 96; pleasures of, 
96, 97 ; carrying of mail by, 97, 
98; social life among, 100-102; 
quarrels among, 102 ; dependence 
of missionaries on, 148; revival 
among, 156; church services for, 
157; expedition escorted by, 162, 
163; drunkenness among, 194; ar- 
rival of, at Fort Snelling, 212; 
ejection of settlers by, 246 

Soup, character of, 86, 87 

South Dakota, Indians in, 103 

Southwest Company, 188 

Spain, exploration of domain of, 1 

Spanish, rule of, in West, 2, 3 ; In- 
dian trade won from, by English, 4 

Speculators, desire of, for land ces- 
sion, 178 

Speeches, making of, by Indians, 181, 
182 

Split Upper Lip, 123 

Spring, eagerness for coming of, 102 ; 
activities of Indians in, 104, 105 

Squad-rooms, 75 

Squatters, huts of, 79 (see Settlers) 

Starch, purchase of, 88 

Stairway, 73 

Stanton, Edwin M., 64 

Steamboating, beginning of, on upper 
Mississippi, 159, 160 

Steamboats, use of, to bring supplies, 
86; mail carried by, 97; reference 
to, 159, 199; advertisements of, 
169; attitude of Indians toward, 
239, 240 

Steele, Franklin, Fort Snelling reser- 
vation sold to, 51, 52; adjustment 
with, 52; home of, 79; account 
books of, 87 



Steen, Mr., 43, 44 

Stevens, Isaac I., survey of route for 

railroad by, 46; reference to, 217 
Stevens, Jedediah I., coming of, to 

Fort Snelling, 149; work of, 

among Indians, 154; preaching by, 

157 
Stillwater (Minnesota), 197 
Stockade, erection of, 25; reference 

to, 73, 136 
Store, purchase of goods at, 87-89 
Storehouse, 75 
Storer, William, 131 
Stoves, use of, for heating, 99 
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 62 
Straits of Mackinac, 21 
Street, Joseph M., 149, 231 
Strong Earth, complaint of, 121 ; 

career of, 180 
Strong Ground, career of, 180 
Sugar, 86; purchase of, 88 
Sugar bush, 105 
Summer, activities of Indians during, 

105 
Sumner, Edwin V., expedition under, 

38 
Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 67, 

71 
Supplies, character of, 26; bringing 

of, to Fort Snelling, 86; amount 

of, furnished to Indians, 182 
Supreme Court of United States, 66 
Surveyors, destruction of landmarks 

of, 42 
Suspenders, purchase of, 88 
Sutler, home of, 79; purchase of 

goods from, 87-89; service of 

Brown as, 190 
Swan, 96 
Sv.-an River, 179 
Switzerland, immigrants from, 172, 

189 

Taliaferro, Lawrence, 28, 35, 66, 72, 
77, 78, 84, 89, 91, 98, 102^ 103, 
114, 116, 139, 140, 160, 167, 178, 
179, 180, 184, 193, 221; threat 
against, 33 ; service of, as Indian 
agent, 68-71 ; letters and papers of, 



268 



INDEX 



69, 70; speech by, 108; suffering 
of Indians relieved by, 109, 110; 
visit of Indians to, 111; aid given 
to sick Indians by. 111, 112; mur- 
derers demanded by, 113; efforts 
of, to civilize Indians, 118; diffi- 
culties of, with Sioux and Chip- 
pewas, 120-134; traders' licenses 
granted by, 137, 138; disagree- 
ment between Bailly and, 138, 139; 
linuor laws enforced by, 142-144; 
efforts of, to induce Indians to 
farm, 148-150; cooperation of, 
with missionaries, 149-158; wed- 
ding ceremony performed by, 191; 
service of, as mediator, 191, 192 

Tatling, results of, 102 

Tattoo, 85 

Taylor, Zachary, service of, at Fort 
Snelling, 59 

Tea party, 197 

Teamsters, employment of soldiers as, 
96 

Temperance societies, 143, 145 

Tennessee, settlement of, 14; refer- 
ence to, 15 

Tenth United States Infantry, expe- 
dition of companies of, 40 ; refer- 
ence to, 63, 64 

Tepees, repairing of, 105 

Teton Sioux Indians, treaty with, 208 

Theatrical performances, 100 

Thespian Players, 100 

Third ArtilleiT, 63 

Third United States Infantry, 19, 21 

Thomas, Sergeant, 223 

Throckmorton, Captain, 169 

Timber, destruction of, 42 

Timber lands, opening up of, 185 

Tintatonwan village, 83 

Tippecanoe, Battle of, 56 

Toopunkah Zeze, killing of, 123, 124, 
231 

Tourist traffic, extent of, 168, 169 

Tourists, increase in number of, 198 
(see Travelers) 

Traders, activities of, 3, 4 ; regula- 
tion of activities of, 135-145; 
granting of licenses to, 137, 138; 



law suit begun by, 144 ; opposition 
of, to farming, 150 ; religious work 
among, 157, 158; desire of, for 
treaty, 178, 179; presence of, at 
council, 180; speeches of Indians 
concerning, 181 ; payment of debts 
to, 183, 184; reference to, 187, 
192; location of, at Mendota, 188; 
service of, 199 

Trading companies, development of, 
135; profit of, 136 

Trading house, 78, 79, 135 

Trading houses, establishment of, 17; 
protection for, 18; cluster of, 80 

Trading posts, location of, 6, 135, 
136, 138; permission for estab- 
lishment of, 7; reference to, 187, 
188 

Training camp, use of Fort Snelling 
as, 52, 53 

Travelers, visits of, to Fort Snelling, 
159-175 

Traverse des Sioux, treaty of, 49, 
247 

Treaties, making of, with Indians, 
12, 13, 28, 47, 48, 176-186, 208, 
247 ; making of, between tribes, 
131, 132 

Treaty of Ghent, terms of, 12, 18 

Treaty of Paris (1783), 16 

Trinkets, 136 

Troops, proposed emplojment of, in 
mining, 25 ; troxibles of, during 
first winter, 25-27; ravages of 
scurvy among, 26; new camp for, 
27; service of, in protection of 
frontier, 31-53; withdrawal of, 
from Fort Snelling, 52, 199 (also 
see Soldiers) 

Truces, making of, between tribes, 
131 

Turkey River, removal of Winne- 
bagoes from, 35, 36; reference to, 
47 

Turner, F. J., 187 

Tutor, service of Marsh as, 100, 101 

TJncle Tom's Cabin, 62 

United States, establishment of mili- 



INDEX 



269 



tary posts by, 2; agreement of, to 
make peace with Indians, 12; 
northern boundary of, 16; expan- 
sion of, 45, 46; hostility of In- 
dians to, 114; relations of, with 
Indians, 176-178; agreement of, 
with Chippewas, 184; land ceded 
to, by Sioux in 1805, 207 

Upper country, extent of, 2 

Utah, 64 

Vaccination of Indians, 112 

Vail, J., 143 

Valentine BaU, 197 

"Valley Forge" (steamboat), 169 

Van Antwerp, Ver Planck, 180 

Van Cleve, Horatio P., 212 

Van Cleve, Mrs., 231 

Vancouver (Washington), 47 

Vevay (Indiana), 190 

Vinegar, 86 

Vineyard, Miles, 179 

Virginia, 70 

"Virginia" (steamboat), trip of, up 

Mississippi River, 159, 160 
Volga River, 41 
Voyageurs, 136, 157, 188 

Wabasha (Chief), 33, 117; land sold 
by, 35; meeting of couriers at vil- 
lage of, 98; missionary at village 
of, 154; village of, 171; payment 
of annuities to Indians under, 185 

Wabasha's Prairie, 35 

Wahpakoota Sioux Indians, treaty 
with, 247 

Wahpeton Sioux Indians, treaty with, 
247 

Wall around Fort Snelling, descrip- 
tion of, 73, 74, 76 

Wakh-pa-koo-tay, 243 

Wakinyantanka, 83 

AVamditanka, 83 

Wapsipinicon River, 42 

War Department, 19, 22, 39, 44, 
160; naming of Fort Snelling by, 
29, 30; attitude of, toward Fort 
Snelling, 31; Indian affairs placed 
under control of, 67 



War of 1812, English supported by 
Indians during, 8-12 ; reference to, 
18, 209; service of Snelling during, 
57; service of Taliaferro in, 70 

War parties, 106 

Warfare, history of, between Siuox 
and Chippewas, 119-134 

"Warrior" (steamboat), 151, 164 

Warriors, desire of, to take part in 
council, 181 

Washington, George, 168 

Washington (Connecticut), 151 

Washington, D. C, 46, 58, 62, 64, 
98, 192: visit of Indians to, 68, 
115, 116, 179; treaty with Sioux 
at, 184 

Washington Monument Association, 
197 

Wasliington Territory, 46 

Washington's birthday, celebration of, 
100 

Water power, 178 

Weapons, stock of, 76, 77 

Webb, James, journey of, to Fort 
Armstrong, 117 

Webster, Daniel, statement by, 59 

Weddings, 191 

West, prediction of Carver concern- 
ing, 1, 2 ; foreign jurisdictions in, 
2, 3 ; English supported by In- 
dians in, 8-12; rapid development 
of, 14; cause of trouble in, 15; 
influence of Fort Snelling in, 52 ; 
service of Canby in, 65; work of 
missionaries in, 146 

West Point Military Academy, 62, 63, 
100 

Westward movement, 14, 15 

Wheat, spoiling of, 86 ; raising of, 95 

Wheeling (West Virginia), 161 

Wheelwrights, 92 

Whiskey, 86; drinking of, by sol- 
diers, 89; efforts to suppress traffic 
in, 139-145; smuggling of, 142, 
143; destruction of, 143, 144,243; 
traffic in, 194, 236 

Whistler, Captain, 21, 211 

White Head, 118 

Whitney, Asa, 217 



270 



INDEX 



Whooping cough, epidemic of, 191 

Widows, fund for relief of, 87 

Wilcox, Captain, 32 

Williams, Lieutenant, 99 

Williamson, Thomas S., 110; wcuk 
of, among Indians, 154-157 

Williamson, Mrs. Thomas S., 154 

Wines, seizure of, 143; giving of, (o 
Indians, 144 

Winnebago Indians, iinwillingness of, 
to make treaty, 13 ; attempt of, to 
delay troops, 21, 22; outbreak of 
32-34; removal of, to new reserva 
tion, 35-37, 48; reference to, 41 
42, 177, 211, 236; treaty with 
47 ; new reservation for, 48 ; dis 
tiirbances among, 48, 49 ; language 
of, 174 

Winnebago War, 214 

Winnipeg, 188 

Winona (Minnesota), 35 

Winter, difficulty in securing mail 
during, 97-99; li'fe at Fort Snell- 
ing during, 99-102; life among 
Indians during, 104, 109, 110 

Wisconsin, Nicollet in, 3 ; Indian out- 



break in, 32-34 ; desire of Winne- 
bagoes to return to, 36; reference 
to, 168; desire for land cession in, 
178; bishop of, 242 

Wisconsin, Territory of, 32, 180; 
marshal of, 195 

Wisconsin Historical Society, 242 

Wisconsin River, 19, 20, 34; canal 
between Fox River and, 20 

Women, social life of, at fort, 100- 
102 

Wood, Doctor, aid given to sick In- 
dians by, 111, 112 

Wood, securing of, for fuel, 99 

Woods, Samuel, expedition under, 38, 
41-45; reference to, 40; fort estab- 
lished by, 44, 45 

Wool, John E., 194 

Wyandot Indians, treaty with, 208 

Yankton Sioux Indians, half-breed 
killed by, 37; treaty with, 208 

Yeast powder, purchase of, 88 

Yellowstone Expedition, 20 ; failure 
of, 21 

Yellowstone River, fort at mouth of, 19 



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